Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On President Biden’s Supplemental Domestic Spending Request
Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on the domestic supplemental request. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:
As the Senate works on America’s needs on the world stage, including passing robust funding for Israel, Ukraine, the Pacific region, and humanitarian aid for Gaza, for Israel, for Ukraine, we will also work to take care of our needs at home.
Last week, the President released his emergency supplemental to help our friends in Israel and Ukraine defend themselves.
Now, Democrats are working with the Administration on a domestic supplemental to support the needs of American families.
Our domestic supplemental will fund bipartisan priorities for Americans like disaster response, securing American energy independence, fighting the scourge of fentanyl, expanding access to affordable high-speed internet, and so much more.
Among our greatest needs right now is addressing child care, which remains outrageously expensive for too many families and is something I want to see the Senate address. I’ve had many conversations recently with my colleagues about how the Senate can make child care more affordable. We’re at a cliff now. As of September 30th, funding was greatly decreased and now child care workers are being laid off and child care slots are being rescinded. Families are in turmoil when that happens. So we have to work on making child care more affordable and have to keep it in the domestic supplemental and do everything we can to get it done.
Just as we have to work on national security on a bipartisan basis, the Senate should absolutely work on America’s domestic needs with equal bipartisan fervor.
You can't have one try to argue against the other, we need both: domestic help and national security. It's not an either or in this situation, and the President has wisely offered a supplemental on domestic issues.
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