Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On The Urgent Need For The Senate To Approve Emergency Funding For Ukraine And Funding To Support Our Continued COVID Response

Washington, D.C. –  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor regarding the urgent need for the Senate to approve President Biden’s request for emergency funding to help to the Ukrainian people and continue our COVID response. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

This morning, President Biden has sent Congress his request for $33 billion in emergency funding to support the Ukrainian people.

This is a big but critically necessary package. I will make sure the Senate prioritizes this important funding package so we can get help to the Ukrainian people fast. ASAP.

It was also good to see the President call for legislation to get tough on Russian Oligarchs. This must be done, and I will ask the Senate to arm the federal government with the tools necessary to put further pressure on Russian Oligarchs and Putin’s cronies. I expect we will include authorities that expand existing forfeiture laws to achieve that end.

We need to go after these crooked oligarchs who have gotten rich off Putin’s regime. The war in Ukraine is on their hands and the federal government should be fully empowered to make sure their moment of reckoning comes. Two months into the war, Putin’s hopes for a quick takeover of Ukraine have all but extinguished, thanks to the bravery of the Ukrainian people and in addition, to the aid that the United States has provided in the forms of Javelins, Stingers, armed carriers, tanks and so many other critical weapons.

This fight is about democracy versus authoritarianism, so every penny we approved for Ukraine is money well spent. And the fight is far from over. We cannot stop now. We must make sure that the Ukrainian people will continue to have the help they need, for as long as they need it.

The Senate must also work on a bipartisan way to pass another round of time-sensitive COVID funding. On both Ukraine funding and COVID funding, Republican obstruction will not serve the American people.

The Administration has made clear it needs more COVID money right now in order to secure the next round of vaccine doses, testing, and the new lifesaving therapeutics.

These are amazing drugs. But what's happening? Since we don't have the money to purchase them, other countries are going to the companies—American companies, American innovation that has made them—and God forbid there's another variant and we may not have these drugs. All because of delay and political games on the other side stopping the COVID legislation.

The Administration has made clear they need this money right now, and as I said, if we wait other nations are going to beat us to the punch and America might be left waiting for months before more supplies are made. This is a risk. It may be a few months away but very real. It is a risk that the American people simply cannot afford.

Of course, there is a very simple way we prevent another closure of schools and churches and businesses: Republicans should work with Democrats to pass another COVID funding bill A-S-A-P. No political games. No poison pills. No dithering about.

In short we must get both Ukrainian emergency relief and COVID funding relief done quickly.

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