Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On The Senate Confirmation Of Critical Nominations To The NLRB, Federal Reserve, and The FCC

Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on the Senate’s work to continue the confirmation process for President Biden’s historically qualified and diverse nominees. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

It has been a productive first week back here on the Senate floor for nominations. Yesterday, I am proud to say we confirmed Gwynne Wilcox to a second term on the NLRB, the National Labor Relations Board. I’m happy she passed, just as she did two years ago when she became the first Black woman ever to be confirmed to the NLRB.

Confirming highly qualified nominees like Ms. Wilcox to the NLRB is a top priority for Democrats and for all working Americans, because it’s one of the most important pro-worker agencies in the country.

Under the Biden Administration, the NLRB has been hard at work overturning Trump-era rulings that harmed workers and unions. They’ve been at work expanding protections in the workplace and safeguarding the right to organize – all important to maintaining the middle class and growing the middle class. Because after all, it was the union movement that really created the broad American middle class in the first place. And when unions were attacked, the middle class declined.

During her first term on the NLRB, Ms. Wilcox was a fervent champion of the labor movement, so I’m pleased that she will be back on the board again.

Now, later this morning, we will confirm Adriana Kugler to be on the Federal Reserve Board.

I was proud to champion the historic nomination of Ms. Kugler, a Colombian-American economist who will make history as the first, the first, Latina in the Fed Board’s 109-year history. And I want to thank Chairman Menendez for championing this outstanding nominee.

Ms. Kugler’s historic confirmation will be a great moment for the Fed and for America, as we elevate fresh, diverse perspectives to our nation’s central bank and continue our strong economic recovery.

We also confirmed two other very impressive nominees to the Federal Reserve this week, Phillip Jefferson, and Lisa Cook, another historic nominee, as Ms. Cook became the first Black woman confirmed to a full term on the Fed. Both of them, again, passed with bipartisan support.

And finally, today we will vote to confirm Anna Gomez as Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission. Ms. Gomez is an exceptional nominee with considerable telecom experience and broad support from groups on both sides of the aisle. And if confirmed she will be the first Latina on the Commission in over 20 years. Another glass ceiling broken. And these are so important to getting a full, diverse view on important governing agencies like the Fed, like the FCC.

Ms. Gomez’s confirmation will fill the fifth and final spot on the FCC, so they can do the crucial work of expanding access to high speed internet, administering programs for affordable internet access, and protecting consumers from junk fees, and much more.

So, I thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for their cooperation on these nominees, and I look forward to continuing this Democratic Senate’s historic pace of confirming well-qualified and diverse nominees.

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