Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks After Senate Republicans Voted To Block The Critical National Security Supplemental Package

Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor after Republicans voted to block the critical national security supplemental package. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks:

Tonight is a sad night in the history of the Senate and in our country: Republicans just blocked a very much needed proposal to send funding for Ukraine, funding for Israel, humanitarian aid for innocent civilians in Gaza, and funding for the Indo-Pacific.

If there is a word for what we most need now, it is to be serious. If Republicans in the Senate do not get serious very soon about a national security package, Vladimir Putin is going to walk right through Ukraine and right through Europe.

This is a historic moment for the Senate: are we going to do something about the threats to democracy happening around the world? Are we going to hold the line against autocrats and dictators and the enemies of our way of life?

We had before the Senate a proposal for not only for national security, but for significant funding for border security that President Biden requested.

We also made our Republican colleagues an offer to get something done on border, by allowing them to vote on an amendment on any border package they wanted – any one they wanted – and all they’d need is 11 Democratic votes.

Unfortunately, Republicans refused to move forward, even with the offer to vote on a border amendment that would have required only 11 democratic votes. They couldn’t come up with a solution.

Nevertheless Democrats remain committed to working very hard to find a solution to this impasse. I understand that Republican negotiators are preparing another package of border policies very soon, and I hope that they come up with something serious instead of the extreme policies they’ve presented thus far.

Democrats have always supported commonsense, realistic solutions to the border. We wished Republicans would have taken us up on our offer to have a debate on the floor. Our offer to the Republicans of an amendment still stands and we hope that we can break this impasse soon.

This is a serious moment that will have lasting consequences for the 21st century. If Ukraine falls, Putin will not stop there. He will be emboldened. President Xi will be emboldened. Our adversaries will keep undermining us at every turn. Western democracy will begin to enter an age of decline if we aren’t willing to defend it. This Senate—this Republican Party—must get serious.

###