Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On The Importance Of Funding Community Health Centers And Other Essential Programs Affected By The Cruel And Chaotic Funding Freeze
Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor to demand that the Trump Administration restore funding to essential programs such community health centers (CHCs), mental health programs, veterans organizations, and Head Start programs. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:
I just got back from Albany and Syracuse, where I visited two of our community health centers: the Syracuse Community Health and the Hometown Health Center in Schenectady.
These community health centers do amazing work. They provide good, effective, efficient health care for so many people.
In New York State, about 2.4 million people get help from the community health centers. In Central New York, where I visited in Syracuse, it’s about 80,000. In the capital region, where Albany is, it’s about 110,000.
When President Trump instituted his funding freeze, it sent shockwaves through these two centers and hundreds of others across the country.
All of a sudden, payments were frozen, funding was frozen – no reasoning, no logic, nothing. They wondered, do they have to lay off people? Could they pay the rent?
They wondered if they could provide health care for someone who had a two-week plan – maybe the doctor shouldn't prescribe it in week one because money wouldn't be around in week two.
They depend on federal funding. They get somewhere between 15% and 20% of their funding from the government. They've been going on since the 1960s, and delivering great, efficient health care.
And all of a sudden, this funding freeze drops on them like a ton of bricks.
And it wasn't just community health centers: it was also veterans organizations, mental health organizations that provide mental health help for people, and Head Start. In Western New York, two of our Head Starts in rural Western New York closed, and 200 families had to struggle to find what to do.
Because when you're a single mom or single dad – or even a mom and dad, two-parent family, and there's nobody there watching the kids – and there’s no Head Start, what are you going to do?
Should I stay home from work, maybe my risk salary being docked, even losing my job? It was horrible. This occurred across the country.
Now, thank God people rebelled. Thank God people made their voices heard, and the funding freeze was rescinded.
But the damage still is there.
There is a health care center where I visited in Syracuse—this one was in the Mohawk Valley—that funding of $71,000 on a thing they were building stopped.
Five centers in Virginia closed.
And funding is still intermittent in health care centers throughout New York State and throughout the country.
Cruel, unfair, awful.
These programs help people. No, they don't help the billionaires. I get it. But they help average folks and poorer people get the health care they need. They help them see a doctor so that preventive care can happen, which we all know saves us money. They're a shining example of a public service that does enormous good for millions of families.
And to anyone who says that these are examples of inefficiency or waste, visit one!
Visit some of the scores of them that are in New York!
These are the most efficient, effective deliverers of health care in the country, and they serve people who need it most.
Let's say you have three kids – you’re a single mom – and your kid has a 104 degree fever with probably strep throat, and you’ve got to see a doctor before it gets worse. You go to a community health center. You don't sit in a waiting room for six hours and file endless paperwork like you do in a hospital. They take care of you right away, and it makes it a lot easier for people to get health care, and it makes people want to get that health care their kid might need.
Yet we're still hearing it, from these great health care centers: funding delayed, funding not coming, funding late. And they depend on this funding.
They don't have a six-month plan. They get funds from the federal government every two weeks – that pays the rent, that pays the salaries, that buys the supplies they need. You shut it off for a week, and the whole thing could face a real problem.
So, I went to Syracuse and Albany and demanded that, number one: this Administration says they're no longer fooling around with the money that these community health centers need, that they get it right away.
Two: they give an explanation why it was cut off. What did they do wrong? Help people get health care that they need?
And third, we Senate Democrats are demanding that we fund these centers overall, which runs out on March 14th.
As you know, there was a bipartisan agreement to fund them fully for the year – Democrats and Republicans. And Donald Trump and Elon Musk said, even before they were in office, they told the Republicans, don't fund this health care package! So now we're waiting till March 14th.
But that is a CHC, a community health center cliff.
If we don't renew that funding, many, many will close. Millions of people in America who are getting good health care, often preventive, often dealing with the immediate problems, will not get care at all.
So, those are the three things: stop fooling around with the funding, keep the flow going.
Number two, explain what anyone did. Why did they stop this funding?
And third, fund us so we don't go over the health care cliff.
This was bipartisan.
But when Donald Trump and Elon Musk said get that funding out, kill the deal, that’s what Republicans did.
I made it clear in Syracuse and in Albany – that cannot happen.
It’s infuriating, and it has nothing to do with inefficiency.
Our big hospitals, by the way, like CHCs because that means their emergency rooms are not overflowed with people who could be taken care of in a much more effective, efficient way.
So, I want to make a final point here.
We hear from Donald Trump, JD Vance, Elon Musk, and DOGE, that all they want to do is get rid of waste and inefficiency.
When you look at community health centers, that's utter nonsense. Utter, utter nonsense. There isn't very much inefficiency at them. No one has ever said that they were inefficient. In fact, most people will look at it and say they're the most efficient providers at a lower cost with less to do in health care, less paperwork, less all of this, than other places.
So, anyone who thinks that this DOGE experiment is simply at getting rid of waste, baloney. We know what it's about – cut. DOGE is using a meat axe and cutting things that are vital to people.
Why? Why is all this happening? Because a careful look at inefficiency in government, even with a new Administration that might want to look at it a little differently, would not just cut everything.
And the bottom line is it's all to cut $2.5 trillion, $2 trillion. We know what they're doing. And unfortunately, too many of our Republican colleagues are going along.
They're making these cuts so they can give the very wealthiest people in America a bigger tax break.
Take a working class family that’s getting health care, and say, you don't get it anymore so that Mr. Ultra-Billionaire can get more tax breaks. Come on! That's what's going on here, and it's across the board. We saw what they did with USAID. Well, one program USAID is working on, as I understand it, is dealing with Ebola in the middle of Africa. And they want to just cut out the program?
What if Ebola spreads around Africa, and even here? Most people think that's a very good program. Most people thought PEPFAR did a lot of good. But they cut it all. They didn't point out, say, this is inefficient, that is inefficient, and cut it. But let’s keep the good stuff.
They said cut it all, and we know why once again. It's because the billionaires want even a bigger tax break. So, my visit to CHCs – the two CHCs I visited, Hometown in Schenectady and Syracuse Health Care – were very moving to me. I saw dedicated people who want to help people. I saw patients come in and get decent health care. And yet it's on the chopping block. That's not what America voted for.
So, I hope we will have a bipartisan coalition to fund our health centers. And I also hope that this Administration, whether it comes to community health centers or so many other good programs across the board, will not freeze their funding, will not just say we're cutting you, but will look at things carefully.
There is inefficiency. Use a scalpel. Get rid of it. But don't cut everything.
And again, it seems the logic is very simple.
They're really not interested in making the government more efficient.
They just want to cut certain huge amounts of money.
They don't care where it comes from, $2.5 trillion, $2 trillion, $1 trillion, regardless of the consequences for working families. It's a shame.
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