Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) today spoke on the Senate floor on the bipartisan agreement reached on the remaining appropriations bills and on the necessity to work without unnecessary delay to avoid a government shutdown. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:
Congress has less than a week to finish the job of fully funding the government for the remainder of the fiscal year.
We all know it’s been a difficult, drawn out appropriations process for everyone in Congress. Appropriators in both chambers, their staffs, my staff, and I have kept at this for months.
But today, we have good news. Earlier this morning, I announced that negotiators from both parties reached an agreement last night on the final six appropriations bills. We now have a bipartisan agreement for Defense, Financial Services, Homeland Security, Labor-HHS-Education, the Legislative Branch, and State and Foreign Ops.
Senate and House Appropriators are now working swiftly to turn this agreement into legislative text as soon as possible, so members can review, finalize, and ultimately take a vote in the coming days. Once the House sends us a funding package, I will put it on the floor of the Senate without delay.
Now, it’s a very good sign that we begin the week by announcing this agreement, but I want to be clear that there’s a lot of work to do in the coming days.
If both parties proceed in the same manner we did two weeks ago – quickly, constructively, and without unnecessary partisan dithering – then I am hopeful we can finish the appropriations process without causing a lapse in government services.
We haven’t had a government shutdown since 2019. There is no good reason for us to have one this week, now that we are getting very close to finishing the job.
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