Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On The Critical Work Continuing In The Senate With National Security Supplemental Negotiations And Military Promotions

Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on the Senate continuing to work through negotiations on the national security supplemental package and confirm military promotions. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Over the past week, Democrats and Republicans have made important progress towards an agreement on the national security supplemental. While the job is not finished I am confident we’re headed in the right direction.

I want to thank all the members and staff from Senate Democrats, Senate Republicans, and the White House who worked through the weekend to get us closer to an agreement. I can imagine that they’re tired after working virtually nonstop all weekend, coming into the office early in the morning and working furiously into the evenings. With the holidays around the corner, they’re sacrificing time with family, their kids, and have to put travel plans on hold to get this done.

I salute my colleagues and staff for their excellent work, and I am encouraged by the progress we made over the weekend – significant progress – and I urge them to keep going.

We all know this is extremely difficult work, among the most difficult things we’ve done in recent memory. Everyone knows that something should be done to fix our broken immigration system, but we can’t do so by compromising our values. Finding the middle ground is exceptionally hard, and both sides must accept that they will have to make concessions. And it’s going to take some more time to get it done.

But we must succeed. Democrats remain committed to working with our Republican counterparts to reach an agreement.

As these negotiations continue off the floor, we must also finish the job on confirming military promotions and other nominees.

In past years, these four-star generals would have been swiftly appointed to their posts. But this year one Senator—the Senator from Alabama—has broken decades of bipartisan tradition by placing blanket holds on these highly qualified and dedicated nominees.

While I am glad the Senator has relinquished his holds, I am disappointed it has taken this long, and we still need to confirm the last few of these nominees before the end of this week.

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