Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Taking The Next Step To Advance Jobs And Competitiveness Legislation

Washington, D.C. –  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor regarding moving forward with jobs and competitiveness legislation to lower costs, shore up our supply chains and preserve our national security. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Today, the Senate will take another step to advance major bipartisan legislation to increase American jobs and lower costs for American families.

For over a year, both parties have worked on competitiveness legislation built around two goals: create more American jobs, and lower costs for American families. In the case of Senator Young and myself, the effort has stretched back many years.

The House and Senate passed legislation to achieve these goals separately, so the best way now to send a final product to the President’s desk is by entering a conference committee with the House and we’re now working towards that end and jumping through a number of procedural hoops to get that done. 

The majority of us want to see this legislation reach the President’s desk; we want to see costs go down for families, see more manufacturing jobs here at home, see greater relief for supply chains, and we want to revive America’s unparalleled innovation machine that fueled our economy for so much of the 20th century.

The past month reminds us that our country is vulnerable when we import too many goods from a single country, particularly, in this case, semiconductors. The war in Ukraine is a perfect test case: some of the most important resources for making chips, like neon gas, come precisely from Ukraine.

We need to make more of these products here in America instead of overseas, so we can lower costs, shore up our supply chains and preserve our national security.

For that reason alone, the Senate is moving ahead on this important competitive legislation.

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