releases: https://www.hatch.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/releases?ContentRecord_id=c5ca30e2-44a5-42c2-9360-fbd51ff4c986
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| https://www.hatch.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/releases?ContentRecord_id=c5ca30e2-44a5-42c2-9360-fbd51ff4c986 | ICYMI: Washington Post Names Hatch "Distinguished Pol of the Week" | 2014-11-17 | 2014 | 2014-11 | Republican | House | UT | Orrin Hatch | H000338 | www.hatch.senate.gov | legacy | Washington, DC – According to the Washington Post, Senator Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, was the "Distinguished Pol of the Week" last week, and "perhaps the most productive lawmaker in the Senate." The full text of the article appears below: Kudos to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) who were elected by acclamation to lead their respective house’s Republicans. But as we turn from campaigns to governing, I want to single out perhaps the most productive lawmaker in the Senate Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) for decades has done what the liberal media constantly demand — work across party lines to pass constructive legislation. This year he didn’t wait for the GOP majority to arrive. Back in January, he joined with fellow Republicans Tom Coburn (Okla.) and Richard Burr (N.C.) to set out a detailed Obamacare alternative. In October he presented an innovation agenda “to foster an environment that encourages research and innovation by addressing abusive patent litigation, protecting trade secrets, modernizing the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, strengthening cybersecurity, reforming immigration policy for high-skilled workers, reducing regulatory and tax burdens for innovators, and removing barriers to digital trade.” In addition, this week he made a constructive suggestion on immigration reform, writing that “effectively fixing this high-skilled piece of the immigration puzzle will require legislative action, and the president’s promise to act unilaterally in other areas will only short-circuit the statutory reforms we desperately need.” He warned, “Obama’s promise to make further unilateral changes to our nation’s immigration policy breeds mistrust and makes meaningful legislative reform even harder to achieve.” He then suggests, as the GOP House leadership supported, a piecemeal approach starting with a pro-growth, bipartisan H1-B visa plan. (“thoughtful, lasting legislative framework that would increase the number of H-1B visas, based on annual market demand, to attract the highly skilled workers and innovators Obama highlighted in his speech”). Now that the Senate is in GOP hands, it can come up with a series of these. Let the Democrats filibuster border security and H1-B vs. reform or a new e-Verify, thereby showing the public which party favors the component parts of a reasoned immigration approach. And in a fine speech before the conservative Federalist Society he offered this sage advice: [T]he Constitution teaches the virtue of prudence. Prudence is a habit of mind that should come naturally to conservatives. It restrains us from seeking immediate and complete vindication of a single, abstract principle. Rather, it counsels us to work within our existing circumstances to advance the enduring principles upon which liberty depends. Prudent lawmakers make real-world experience, not abstract theory, their guide, and recognize that success requires harmonizing competing values. The Constitution is an exercise in such prudence. It contains within its structure a clash of many competing institutions: The democratic, majoritarian House. The deliberative Senate. The unified and energetic Executive. And the independent judiciary. There is tension between individual rights and majority will, energy and stability, limited powers and flexibility to act. The Constitution mediates many rival goods. It is founded on compromise. And it institutionalizes prudence as a signal virtue of our Republic. Conservatives have been most successful when we have tempered our ideological zeal with the prudence necessary to produce practical results. Many conservative leaders and thinkers eagerly wrap themselves in the mantle of Ronald Reagan. But as time has passed, President Reagan’s legacy has become increasingly prone to misappropriation and misuse. . . .When I see someone misappropriating President Reagan for their own purposes, I often feel duty-bound to remind my fellow conservatives that President Reagan never prized ideological purity over concrete results. When faced with divided government, he did not choose a my-way-or-the-highway approach. Instead, he searched for areas of agreement. That meant accepting that some of our noble goals—such as restraining spending and reforming the administrative state—were out of reach at the time. But it enabled President Reagan to make meaningful progress in other, equally critical areas—like pro-growth tax relief and bolstering our national defense—progress that helped produce economic prosperity and won the Cold War. Today, we honor President Reagan’s legacy, not by mischaracterizing his record or engaging in idol-worship, but instead by thoughtfully emulating his leadership, adapted to the challenges of today. So for all that, and with the promise of a productive 2015 legislative year and prudent governance , we can say, well done, Sen. Hatch. | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |