Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On The Need For Bipartisanship To Move Forward With Both Appropriations Legislation And President Biden’s Supplemental Request

Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor regarding the Senate moving forward on three bipartisan appropriations bills and the need to move forward on President Biden’s supplemental request. Below are his remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Yesterday morning, Democrats and Republicans reached an important agreement to move forward on three bipartisan – underline bipartisan – appropriations bills: MilCon-VA, Agriculture, Transportation-HUD.

We will begin voting on amendments as soon as this afternoon, and keep going through the rest of the week and into the next. It is my hope that with bipartisan cooperation, we can wrap up our work on these bipartisan appropriations bills sometime next week.

This will be the Senate working as it should: both parties cooperating, debating amendments, working through differences without grinding the legislative process to a halt.

Democrats promised our Republican colleagues that their voices would be heard, and we’re making good on that promise: forty amendments will be considered, many of them bipartisan, on issues ranging from telehealth funding for veterans, fixing infrastructure hit by natural disasters, to investments in rural America.

We worked closely with Republicans to put these appropriations bills together.

If passed, these bills will make a huge difference for American farmers, for our infrastructure, for housing, and for our military bases and veterans.

Bipartisanship isn’t easy – on the contrary these days it is exceedingly difficult – but we’re moving forward thanks to the good work of our appropriators, especially Chair Murray and Vice Chair Collins. They’ve set the tone from the start here in the Senate that bipartisanship should lead the way. It was true in the Appropriations Committee. I hope it remains true here on the floor.

Because we’re going to need bipartisanship in all that we do during this time of divided government.

Bipartisanship will be essential for passing these appropriations bills.

Bipartisanship will be essential for keeping the government open in less than a month.

And bipartisanship will be essential for passing the President’s national security request.

I would say to my colleagues in the House, my Republican colleagues, if you try to do things not in a bipartisan way, it's going to lead to cul-de-sacs, gridlocks, and other things that hurt the American people.

Both parties recognize we must support our allies in Israel against Hamas.

Both parties recognize that we must support our friends in Ukraine against Putin.

Both parties know we must fight the scourge of fentanyl coming through our border, outcompete the Chinese government, and support Taiwan.

So, to my Republican colleagues, House and Senate: let’s work together to ensure that passing the supplemental remains bipartisan, because only things that win support from both sides will make it to the President’s desk.

I thank my colleagues on both sides who’ve shown that bipartisanship is still the key to getting things done here in the Senate. And now, because of that bipartisanship, the appropriations process is finally, finally moving forward.

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