Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On House Republicans Wasting Time On Extremist Proposals That Cannot Become Law And The Need For Bipartisan Legislation To Avoid A Harmful Government Shutdown

Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on House Republicans’ proposed radical continuing resolution and the need for bipartisanship to avoid a harmful government shutdown caused by the hard right. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

An ominous case of déjà vu is playing out this week in the House of Representatives: a national crisis is around the corner, the solution demands bipartisanship, but Speaker McCarthy is wasting precious time catering to the hard, hard MAGA right.

Catering to the hard right didn’t work during the default crisis, and it will not work here in the shutdown crisis.

It’s been a troublesome, vexing week for the House of Representatives. A few days ago, House Republicans released what they called a deal on a CR but which in reality read like a House Freedom Caucus screed.

It called for a devastating 8% cut on virtually all nondefense spending. It would have gutted law enforcement funding, border protection, nutrition benefits, so much more.

But that still wasn’t extreme enough for MAGA Republicans. The House GOP’s latest proposals are even more extreme, call for even greater cuts, and stand even less of a chance of passing the U.S. Senate.

House Republicans are still trying to appease the most hard-right elements of their conference. It’s almost as if a small handful are deciding what the whole body of 435 members should do. It makes no sense and the hard right, many of them, publicly say they want the government to shut down, despite the fact that it would hurt so many. And so, that’s what seems the Republican leadership is doing, instead of pursuing the one path we all know will work: bipartisanship.

Instead of decreasing the chances of a shutdown, Speaker McCarthy is actually increasing it by wasting time on extremist proposals that everyone knows he knows cannot become law.

Let me say that again: Instead of decreasing the chance of a shutdown, Speaker McCarthy is actually increasing it by wasting time on extremist proposals that cannot become law.

In the Senate, many of us are united in the need for more Ukraine aid. But the hard right proposals in the House fail to provide any.

In the Senate, only an agreement that can get votes from both parties will be able to pass. But the hard right proposals have all been drafted with zero Democratic input, and zero effort to even appear bipartisan.

So, for all the effort Speaker McCarthy has spent on trying to find something that makes MAGA Republicans happy, there is no scenario where we avoid a shutdown without a bipartisan agreement.

If the Speaker continues down on the path he’s on, the odds of a shutdown sadly go up, and Americans will know that the responsibility of a shutdown will be on the Republicans’ hands.

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