Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks Calling On Republicans To Drop Their Partisan, Unserious H.R. 1 And Work With Democrats On Commonsense Permitting Reform

Washington, D.C. –  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) spoke on the House Republicans passing H.R. 1, calling the bill dead on arrival in the Senate and urging Republicans to work with Democrats on commonsense permitting reform. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

The House is expected today to vote on Republicans' partisan, unserious, and so-called energy package that they call H.R. 1. First, once again, I want to make it clear, H.R. 1 is dead on arrival in the Senate. Not because of politics, but because it's so ridiculous. And it has been drawn up by a bunch of pro-oil senators with no regard for anything else, no Democrat has been consulted.

So obviously, the Republicans knew that in the House when they passed it. But they want to seem to go back in H.R. 1, they go back to the MAGA supporters back home, the big oil companies, the oil wildcatters and so many of the oil states, who don't want to pay any taxes, who don't want anything to do with moving us forward as the climate gets worse and worse.

The Senate is not going to waste our time on a bill that sets America back decades in our transition to clean energy. All it takes is a brief glance at H.R. 1 to realize it's a giveaway to big oil.

House Republicans so-called energy package guts important safeguards, environmental safeguards on fossil fuel projects, it would lock America into expensive, erratic, and dirty energy sources, while setting us back more than a decade on our decision to move forward on clean energy, which this nation fully supports.

Transmission is of course hugely important to increasing access on clean energy, but the Republican plan hardly even mentions it. So again, the way to do this, Republicans in the House, is in a bipartisan way. We have a Republican House. We have a Democratic Senate. No party is going to be able to jam its way through without consulting the other side.

That's true on debt ceiling, that's true on budget, and it’s certainly true on H.R. 1. There are Republicans in the House, and Democrats in the house, there are Republicans in the Senate, and Democrats in the Senate, who want to sit down and do a serious energy package. We need to do it. Let's stop this brinksmanship.

Let's stop this political game playing. Let's stop this throwing bones to the MAGA hard right, which represents maybe 5% of America. Let's roll up our sleeves. Let's get down to work and get something done on energy and on so many other issues.

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