Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On The Urgent Need To Pass A Bipartisan National Security Supplemental Package

Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on the imminent need to pass a bipartisan supplemental package to provide crucial aid to our allies and protect our national security. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Talks on finding a way to pass a much-needed national security supplemental package continue here in the Senate.

In our supplemental, we must deliver aid to Israel, aid to Ukraine, humanitarian assistance to innocent civilians in Gaza, and fund military capabilities in the Indo-Pacific. All these national security issues are related and should move together.

Yesterday, I spoke directly to both Leader McConnell and Speaker Johnson and made clear that if Republicans don’t work with us in a bipartisan way on the border, passing a supplemental is going to be very difficult.

I was deeply troubled by reports yesterday that Speaker Johnson joined Senate Republicans and made a push to inject more H.R. 2 provisions into the Senate supplemental.

That is precisely the kind of thing that undermines the entire supplemental, including aid to Israel, aid to Ukraine, and humanitarian aid to Gaza. We all know the border is a problem that we should deal with, but it's not related to Ukraine, or to Israel, or to the Indo-Pacific. It's been put in there by Republicans, and that means there's an onus on them to make sure it's bipartisan.

Democrats are willing to work with Republicans on commonsense, realistic border security, but we can’t have the hard right essentially say its H.R. 2 or nothing. If Speaker Johnson, or for that matter the negotiators, feel they have to listen to what Speaker Johnson can pass just amongst his caucus, we'll never get anything done. Democratic votes are going to be needed in the House to pass this legislation, we all know that. So, this H.R. 2 or nothing – or something close to H.R. 2 or nothing – is a proposal that could not pass the Senate or the House. 

The solution for passing the supplemental is bipartisan compromise, and we have shown that we are willing to do it.

The wrong answer is to let Ukraine aid, let Israel aid, let aid to civilians in Gaza all get bungled because the hard right wanted H.R. 2 or something close to it. I urge my Republican colleagues not to let that happen, because at the end of the day, what's holding this up is not the issues of Israel, Ukraine, humanitarian aid, or the Indo-Pacific. It's border, and that was injected by our Republican colleagues. Please, they should work with us to fix it in a bipartisan way or we won't get anything done.

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