WASHINGTON, D.C.— At a press conference yesterday, U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) highlighted the legislative achievements of the Republican-led Senate during the first half of 2015 and stressed the need for progress to continue. 

Click here to watch Thune’s full statement.

Excerpts:

“When Republicans took control of the Senate, we made a commitment that we were going to get the Senate working again, and since that time in January, that’s what’s happened …  

“We’ve passed numerous bills across the floor of the Senate, 18 of which have been signed now by the president into law. We passed a budget, a balanced budget for the first time in a decade. Thank you, Senator Enzi, for that. Passed Medicare reforms, SGR reforms. Senator Hatch, thank you for that. Those are the types of things that had bipartisan support when they moved through the Senate ...

“The people in my state of South Dakota expect us to come out here and to work on solutions, and after the first six months, I think can point to a lot of progress. But there’s a lot more that can be done and a lot more that should be done, and we hope that this president and the Democrats in the United States Senate will work with us on solutions that will move our economy forward, create jobs, create a higher standard of living, better wages for the American people, and keep our country more secure and more prosperous.”