With new leadership in the House of Representatives, an important return to regular order and a more inclusive process, the first Republican-controlled Congress in nine years ended 2015 by passing a number of substantial legislative achievements and conservative reforms that will benefit the American economy and the American people. More importantly, these legislative achievements were signed into law by a president who threatened to block much of this important progress.

By breaking the gridlock, the Republican Congress passed a long-term highway funding bill for the first time in a decade that will strengthen our economy and provide states long-term certainty and flexibility for much-needed infrastructure projects. By advancing Republican principles and ideas, the government’s 40-year-old ban on crude oil exports will be lifted, creating jobs here at home and shifting the energy dependence of emerging democracies away from bad actors like Russia and Iran.