Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On The Upcoming Senate Session And The Need To Avoid A Harmful Government Shutdown
Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on this upcoming session, including continuing work to confirm President Biden’s well-qualified judicial nominees and the need to pass bipartisan legislation to avoid a harmful and unnecessary government shutdown. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:
The Senate is back in session for what will be three very busy, fast-paced, and consequential few weeks.
This afternoon, we will hold our first vote on cloture on the nomination of Adam Abelson to be a District Judge for the District of Maryland.
For the information of senators, I have also filed cloture on the nomination of Jeannette Vargas to be a District Judge for the Southern District of New York. For the rest of the week – and for the rest of the work period – we will keep confirming more of President Biden’s outstanding judicial nominees.
Now, as everyone knows, one of the most important things we must do this work period is avoid a government shutdown.
Today is September 9th. Funding for the federal government will expire in 21 days unless Republicans work with Democrats on a temporary extension.
As has been done time and time again, keeping the government open will require bipartisanship. Keeping the government open will mean no poison pills or reckless partisan posturing. And keeping the government open will mean tuning out the bully tactics of the hard-right.
Sadly, our House Republican counterparts are not off to a promising start.
Late last week, House Republicans released – without even consulting the Democratic leaders of the House and Senate or the President – a six-month CR that is transparently unserious and seemingly designed for scoring political points instead of avoiding a shutdown.
In fact, it is so unserious that the White House has already issued a veto threat.
It is a shame that the House of Representatives is once again wasting time catering to the hard-right instead of doing the hard work of responsible, bipartisan governance. Speaker Johnson’s slapdash continuing resolution isn’t a serious effort to fund our government.
If House Republicans were serious, they would sit down and craft a bill in a bipartisan fashion – consulting with me, the House Democratic Leader, and the White House –that would actually achieve our common goal of funding the government.
If House Republicans were serious, they would not kick the can down the road for half a year, jeopardizing our military readiness and troop pay and interrupting critical domestic investments.
If the House Republicans were serious, they would work across the aisle to craft a CR that does not allow a lapse of critical health care programs like community health centers.
They would work with the Senate to make sure we extend vital programs that protect our border and our economy, like E-Verify and H2B visas.
And if House Republicans were serious, they would work with Democrats to avoid the Farm Bill expiration in December and prevent the horrible dairy cliff that would so hurt our farmers.
If the funding provided by the farm bill expires before we act, thousands of dairy farmers could be seriously harmed and be put in real jeopardy. And it would send costs straight up the roof for consumers on a whole lot of agricultural based goods.
So, the House Republican CR is simply unserious – it is pure partisan posturing.
Democrats will do everything we can to avoid a Republican-manufactured shutdown. We are ready to work on a bipartisan bill that will keep the government open. Any extraneous provisions that hinder that goal should be set aside.
Despite all this, Speaker Johnson knows deep down that he needs to work with Democrats to get anything done, because that’s been true this entire time.
And it is a good sign the Johnson CR finally accepts the bipartisan topline spending agreement I reached with him months ago, as part of the deal to prevent a default.
It’s clear that any final agreement will maintain that funding level.
So, let’s stop wasting time and put together a bipartisan funding plan that fulfills our obligations to prevent a costly and unnecessary Republican government shutdown.
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