Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On The Urgent Need To Pass Bipartisan Legislation To Avert A National Rail Shutdown
Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on the urgent need to pass bipartisan legislation that averts a national rail shutdown. He also discussed his plan to hold a vote to provide rail workers with the paid sick leave many of them have asked for. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:
Yesterday, the House of Representatives passed a Joint Resolution that will ensure our railroads continue to operate and our economy continues to function as the holiday season commences.
Last night, I invoked Rule 14 to place that resolution directly onto the Legislative Calendar. Senators are working morning, noon, and night to reach an agreement for us to act on this measure ASAP.
The Senate cannot leave until we get the job done, and Democrats will keep working with Republicans to find a path forward that everyone can support.
One of my top priorities is holding a vote to provide rail workers with the paid sick leave many of them have asked for.
I support paid sick leave, my Democratic colleagues support paid sick leave, and we want to see it included in the package. We hope some of our Republican colleagues will join us.
Forcing workers to choose between their health and their livelihoods is unacceptable, and for that reason, Democrats, myself included, think it should be included.
One thing is certain: time is of the essence. A rail shutdown is set to begin December 9th, but the truth is we need to resolve this impasse well in advance of that date.
Suppliers and businesses across the nation are going to begin shutting down operations soon if they think a strike is imminent. They’re not going to wait until December 9th. They’re not going to put something on a railcar in Seattle on December 7th that may be stuck in Peoria on December 9th because there’s a rail strike, even when it’s headed, say, to the East Coast. So for the suppliers and businesses, the drop dead date, if you will, before damage occurs, is a lot sooner than December 9th. And there’d be painful disruptions to the economy before December 9th if we didn’t act soon.
The consequences of inaction would be severe:
- Unsafe drinking water
- Unusable gasoline
- Shuttered power plants
- And a crippling shutdown of passenger rail across the country
And those are just a few of the myriad of problems, serious problems, that would occur if there's a rail shutdown.
In that scenario, nobody wins and everybody loses, so the responsible thing to do here is to move forward, and do everything we can to include paid sick leave. Again, we must keep working until the task is complete.
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