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The past two years of the 111th Congress have been tough, maybe the toughest since I came to the Senate. Still, we got a lot done during 2010, making the 111th one of the most productive Congresses ever.

We'll have to keep the battle going for working families in 2011. While too many Americans are struggling to find a job, Republicans in Washington have tried to block nearly every attempt to rebuild our economy, and even our attempts to put in place new rules to keep economic crisis from striking again.

Just how much obstructionism did we face in 2010? Republican filibusters forced the Democratic majority to use a lengthy procedural process, known as cloture, to end the filibuster 62 times. Compare that to the entire decade of the 1960s, when the Senate invoked cloture only four times during those pitched civil rights battles. The minority's roadblocks stopped or delayed major legislation that our constituents wanted and our nation needed.

Still, we got lots of important work done. We sent the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to the President's desk, fulfilling a goal Democrats have held for decades. We passed bills to help create jobs, including the HIRE Act, which includes tax incentives for businesses to hire people who lost their jobs in the recession and provisions to reduce small business taxes. We passed the Small Business Jobs and Credit Act, which will help businesses get the loans they need to grow.

In 2010, we also put a cop back on Wall Street. The Wall Street reforms we passed will help rein in the heedless risk taking that brought down the economy. Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon and I overcame strong opposition to include language that will restrict banks from making risky bets that benefit the banks when the bets pay off and cost the taxpayers when they lose, and limit conflicts of interest that have plagued the financial system.

Republicans used the filibuster threat to hold hostage tax relief for the middle class and continued emergency unemployment benefits. Only if we included tax cuts for the very wealthy would they allow us to keep taxes on the middle class from going up. Their plan added more than $100 billion to our deficit over the next two years. To me, the price was just too high, and I voted against the deal the President reached with Republicans.

We also did much in 2010 to make our nation more secure. In August, President Obama succeeded in handing over military responsibility for Iraq to the Iraqis. We made significant progress in Afghanistan as well, and have done quite a bit there to reverse Taliban and al Qaeda gains. I will keep pressing to make sure Afghan troops take the lead more and more often and carry the fight to the maximum extent possible, because ultimately, only the Afghan people can secure their own future. In another plus for our national security, at year's end we ratified the New START treaty, reducing the number of nuclear weapons that we and Russia deploy and making our nations and the entire world safer.

And we ended "don't ask, don't tell." Now, our military leaders can bring to a close a policy that, as Admiral Mullen eloquently put it, forces brave men and women "to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens."

So, in spite of a record number of filibusters, the 111th Congress produced much historic legislation. But it sure wasn't easy, and the coming year probably won't be any easier. Already, the Republican leader in the Senate is saying: "If they think it's bad now, wait till next year."

That's truly unfortunate, because we have plenty of work left to do. We have to do more to help Americans who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own. At the same time, we do have to be concerned about our long-term debt issues. We will need to continue monitoring progress in Afghanistan toward President Obama's decision to reduce U.S. combat troops beginning in July 2011. We need to do more to protect our environment, such as continuing to provide funding for restoration of the Great Lakes. And we must keep planning and acting to end our dependence on foreign oil, a dependence that threatens our security, our environment and our economy.

It's a long to-do list, and none of it will be easy. But there is no reason we can't continue our progress out of recession and toward a safer world.

Thank you so much for your support. Best wishes from Barb and me for a healthy and happy 2011.

Sincerely,

Carl Levin