Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Taking Next Step Towards Conference On Bipartisan Jobs And Competitiveness Legislation

Washington, D.C. –  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor regarding moving forward with bipartisan jobs and competitiveness legislation to fix supply chains and ultimately lower costs. Senator Schumer filed cloture on the motion to proceed to the House-passed America COMPETES Act for the purpose of going to conference with the House. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks:

I have an announcement to make for the information of Senators: in a few moments, I will take the next procedural step to advance the jobs and competitiveness legislation so important to so many of us in this chamber.

Last summer, the Senate passed an overwhelmingly bipartisan bill that will bring manufacturing jobs back to America, fix supply chains, fuel scientific research, and ultimately lower costs by a significant amount. The bipartisan bill would be great news for our economy, our entrepreneurs, our innovators, and especially families who are feeling the sting because of the chip shortage.

We all know the chip shortage is hurting so many people: it’s hurting the auto industry that’s had to temporarily shut down factories, it’s hurt our tech industry, our health care industry, and so many others. So let’s solve this quickly!

In order to go to Conference, the Senate needs to amend the House-passed COMPETES bill with the Senate-passed U.S. Innovation and Competition Act and send it back to the House. That’s what we will aim to do next week, as quickly as we can.

Again: this jobs and supply chains legislation will help lower costs! Let us have bipartisan cooperation on this bill.

Now, despite filing cloture, it’s far better for Democrats and Republicans to reach an agreement to vote on this bill quickly, and we’ll keep working on that over the next few days.

It’s regrettable that a small band of Republicans are determined to stand in the way of quick action; after all the good work we’ve done in recent weeks passing bipartisan legislation, let’s add to that tally by quickly passing this bill.

Creating jobs, lowering costs, fixing supply chains shouldn’t be partisan, and I hope to see an agreement to expedite this process soon. In the meantime, the process is moving forward.

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