A multi-year highway funding bill. Education reform. A budget bill approved by both houses of Congress.

Those are just a few of the measures that passed the Republican-led U.S. Senate this year and were signed into law by President Obama. The Senate also passed legislation helping the victims of human trafficking, reauthorizing Medicare and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and preventing veteran suicides.

Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito is involved in several initiatives still making their way through the legislative process. Those include the ARENA Act, the Capito Connect Plan to expand broadband access, and measures to fight drug abuse.

Would these and other accomplishments have occurred under the leadership of Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid? Probably not. When Reid was at the helm, Congress operated in a constant state of gridlock. The Senate and House rarely agreed on important issues, causing its approval numbers to dip.

But, thankfully, that gridlock seems to have been replaced by a working, functioning government led by Republicans in both chambers of Congress.

Under new Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, it appears Congress is working to pass legislation despite the tactics employed by the Obama administration.

Washington isn’t the only place where a Republican majority has been successful. Here at home, the first Republican Legislature in 80 years enacted several pieces of legislation to reform our state’s legal climate. As a result, West Virginia has been removed from a list of “judicial hellholes.”

Lawmakers are preparing to look at several other issues, including right-to-work, tax reform and education reform when the 2016 regular session begins soon.

Democratic Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin raised concerns with some bills the Legislature passed, but both parties shared the common goal of improving the state.

Perhaps that’s a lesson for Obama as he enters the final year of his last term. The business of a state or nation cannot be conducted properly when the executive and legislative branches are at odds with one another. Perhaps now is the time for Obama to step back and allow members of Congress to do the work they were elected to do.

Maybe in a year’s time, we’ll see an even bigger, more impressive list of what Republican lawmakers have been able to accomplish.