Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Beginning The New Year By Confirming More Of President Biden’s Judicial Nominees And On Build Back Better

Washington, D.C. –  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor regarding beginning a new year in the Senate by confirming Gabriel Sanchez as a U.S. Circuit Judge for the Ninth Circuit and on Build Back Better. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

The Senate gavels in on this icy January morning to mark the beginning of a new year—and there is much we must accomplish.

At the start of 2020, few could have foreseen the awful trials our county has endured over the past two years.

But against adversity the American people responded: last year over 200 million Americans got vaccinated against COVID, six million jobs were added back to the economy, and Congress delivered on historic legislation that gave Americans a much-needed lifeline to get through the worst of COVID.

In a 50-50 Senate, we passed the first stand-alone infrastructure bill in decades, passed historic funding for the sciences and tech innovation, and confirmed the most judicial nominees in a president’s first year since Ronald Reagan.

Despite the immense challenges before us, we now begin 2022 better off compared to where we were one year ago.

But of course there is much, much still left to do. So let us continue.

To begin this week, the Senate will vote to confirm Gabriel Sanchez as a U.S. Circuit Judge for the Ninth Circuit. A graduate of Yale, a Fulbright scholar, and a current Associate Justice of the California Courts of Appeal, Justice Sanchez has presided in hundreds of cases and has the experience and expertise necessary to be an excellent addition to the federal bench.

Off the floor, the negotiations will also continue with members of our caucus and with the White House on finding a path forward on Build Back Better. As I mentioned before Christmas, I intend to hold a vote in the Senate on BBB. And we’ll keep voting until we get a bill passed.

The stakes are high for us to find common ground on this legislation. The climate crisis continues to worsen. Families and children continue dealing with the impacts of COVID. 

And too many Americans still struggle to pay the high costs of health care and prescription drugs. 

We will keep working until we get something done.

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