Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On The Senate Votes Today To Fund The Government And Avoid An Unnecessary Shutdown

Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on the Senate voting today on passage of a continuing resolution and avoiding a government shutdown. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

I have good news. Last night, the Senate reached an agreement to pass a clean extension of government funding, to avert a needless shutdown and give appropriators more time to finish their work.

We expect to begin voting at 12:30 on two Republican amendments, and then to final passage.

Getting here wasn’t easy. My colleagues and I worked late into the evening, negotiating with the other side on amendments and timing. But after a lot of hard work and compromise from both sides of the aisle, the Senate will pass the CR today, giving the House enough time to act before Friday’s deadline.

Once the Senate acts, I urge the House to move on the CR as soon as possible, so we can send it to the President’s desk as early as today.

In order to give our House colleagues time to act, I ask that senators vote quickly once votes are called later this morning. Again, if we can send something to the President’s desk today, that would be great.

Once we put the threat of a shutdown behind us, I hope we continue seeing even more bipartisanship as appropriators complete the very important task of fully funding the government in the coming weeks.

I thank my Senate colleagues for working together to ensure the government stays open. Avoiding a shutdown is very good news for the country, for our veterans, for parents and children, and for farmers and small businesses – all of whom would have felt the sting had the government shut down.

And this is what the American people want to see: both sides working together and governing responsibly. No chaos. No spectacle. No shutdown.

But, amazingly, not everyone in Congress feels that way.

As we speak, there’s still a loud contingent of hard right rabble-rousers who, amazingly, believe that causing a shutdown is somehow a good thing, if it gets them what they want.

The MAGA hard right thinks that it’s perfectly fine to have VA offices close, or to endanger nutrition programs that help seven million moms and kids, or suspend disaster aid for farmers.

In the twisted logic of the hard-right, the theory is if enough people feel the pain of a shutdown, the hard right can bully the rest of Congress into enacting their deeply unpopular agenda.

Bullying, intimidation, chaos: this is MAGA extremism in a nutshell.

But here’s the thing: the fact that we’re passing a CR today shows yet again that this kind of bullying almost never works. The hard-right’s bullying didn’t work when we avoided default, it didn’t work when we avoided shutdowns last year, and it didn’t work today either.

I thank my colleagues for their good work, and I expect a strong bipartisan vote later on it this afternoon.

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