Senate Majority Leader John Thune took to the floor this week to deliver a victory lap for the Republican-led chamber, characterizing the 2025 legislative session as one of the most productive in decades.
Standing beside charts illustrating vote counts and tax savings, Thune argued that the upper chamber hasn’t just been busy—it has fundamentally reshaped the American landscape during President Trump’s first year back in office.
“We have accomplished a lot this year,” Thune declared, pointing to a red line on a bar graph that he noted represents 653 votes cast so far in 2025. That figure, according to the Senator, dwarfs any single year going back to 1989 and is only bested by a session in 1976. But Thune was quick to pivot from sheer volume to substance, centering his remarks on what he dubbed the “flagship” achievement of the year: the “Working Families Tax Cuts Act,” often referred to by Republicans as the “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
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The legislation, which Thune highlighted as a cornerstone of the GOP agenda, reportedly locks in the 2017 tax cuts that were set to expire while adding a suite of new benefits. Among the provisions Thune listed were an increased standard deduction, a boosted child tax credit, and new exemptions ending taxes on tips and overtime pay. He claimed these measures prevented a massive tax hike, saving the average U.S. family roughly $3,752.
“Extend it we did, but we didn’t just extend it—we made it permanent,” Thune said regarding the tax relief.
Beyond fiscal policy, the Majority Leader emphasized an aggressive pace in staffing the executive branch. Thune reported that by week’s end, the Senate will have confirmed 417 of President Trump’s nominees.
He contrasted this figure sharply with previous administrations, noting that at the same point in their respective first terms, Trump had 323 confirmations in 2017 and President Biden had 365 in 2021. Thune framed this acceleration as a necessary counter to what he described as “historic obstruction” by Democrats, whom he accused of forcing procedural hurdles for even non-controversial, sub-cabinet positions.
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The Senator’s end-of-year review also touched on a series of regulatory rollbacks and targeted safety bills. He touted the repeal of the Biden-era electric vehicle mandate and various appliance regulations that Republicans argued were driving up costs. On public safety, Thune spotlighted the passage of the Halt Fentanyl Act, which permanently schedules fentanyl analogues as top-tier deadly drugs, and the Laken Riley Act, aimed at tightening restrictions on undocumented immigrants with criminal records.
Thune also pointed to the Genius Act—establishing a federal framework for stablecoins—and the Take It Down Act, designed to combat non-consensual explicit imagery online, as proof of the Senate’s varied focus.
As the session winds down, Thune’s message was clear: the frantic pace of 2025 was by design. “Americans are going to be looking at safer streets, more money in their pockets, and new opportunities,” he concluded, signaling that the GOP intends to carry this momentum straight into 2026.
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