Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Senate Passage Of Three Bipartisan Appropriations Bills

Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor regarding the Senate’s passage of three bipartisan appropriations bills. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks:

I’m proud to say that today the Senate becomes the first chamber in Congress to pass bipartisan, responsible appropriations bills: MilCon-VA, Agriculture, and Transportation-HUD.

These bipartisan bills deliver big wins for America’s farmers, for our infrastructure, for housing, and for our military bases and veterans, and more. And passing these bills affirms what I’ve said all year long: the only way—the only way—things get done in divided government is bipartisanship.

I hope the Senate’s success today shows Speaker Johnson and House Republicans that bipartisanship is the way to go. The American people won’t support the futile exercise of passing partisan, extremist legislation that has no chance of becoming law, which is what the House is doing right now. Their appropriations bills are loaded with poison pills that they know are not going to be accepted in this chamber or by Democrats in their chamber and they make cuts in the budget that goes against the agreement we made during the debt ceiling [debate].

I told Speaker Johnson last week that if we can figure out how to work on appropriations together, we can get good things done for the country, which is what both sides—I’m proud to say—in the Senate want to do.

I urged Speaker Johnson not to repeat the mistakes of Speaker McCarthy’s team, who pushed party line funding bills that went way below the agreement from June, without input from Democrats. Only bipartisan appropriations bills will be able to fully fund the government.

I want to recognize my colleague, Chair Patty Murray, who has done excellent work in her first year as Chair of the Appropriations Committee. She has been outstanding.

I also wish to thank Vice Chair Susan Collins for her terrific work, as well as all the appropriators on both sides of the aisle. Pursuing bipartisanship isn’t always easy—most of the time it’s difficult, more difficult now than ever—but if you stick with it you can do it and we’ve stuck with it and we’ve done it. Thanks to both sides we are reaching a good outcome for the country.

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