Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On The Historic Economic Recovery Under President Biden And Continuing Work To Pass Legislation To Relieve Supply Chains, Lower Costs, And Bring Jobs Back From Overseas

Washington, D.C. –  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor regarding the historic economic recovery in President Biden’s first year and moving quickly to a conference on legislation that will lower costs, increase wages, and bring jobs back from overseas while creating more jobs right here at home. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

On Friday, our country received another extraordinary bit of news about the state of our economic recovery: last month the economy created 467,000 new jobs, far exceeding all expectations.

This comes on the heels of news that our economy grew at its fastest rate in decades last year. With last week’s jobs numbers, the U.S. economy now has added a total of 6.6 million jobs in President Biden’s first year in office.

Let me say that again: in one year alone, the economy has added a whopping 6.6 million jobs back to the economy, the most ever recorded for a President’s first year. This includes the creation of 367,000 manufacturing jobs, the most in 30 years.

For all the difficulties of the past two years, and for the real challenges our economy faces today, this jobs number is a remarkable milestone. It’s a reminder that who gets elected to office makes a big difference.

A year ago, Democrats promised to fix the mess our country was in after President Trump botched our pandemic response. We promised to lift our economy out of the abyss, to get people back to work, back to the classroom—and to do it safely by following the science.

It is why Democrats worked furiously last year to pass the American Rescue Plan. It’s why the Senate came together to pass USICA, which we will work to enact into law in the near future. And it’s why we came together to pass a historic bipartisan infrastructure package that’s now putting people back to work fixing our roads, bridges, internet, lead piping, and so much more.

With 6.6 million jobs gained, and record economic growth in our first year, Democrats are delivering on our promise.

And it’s not just that job creation exceeded expectations. Wages for American workers grew in 2021 – and indications from top forecasters are that wages will continue to grow in 2022.

A year into executing our Democratic agenda, the American economy is in the midst of a historic turnaround.

But, the job is not over.

And even as wages are up, Democrats are taking action to lower costs.

We need to help everyday families afford the daily essentials, just as we need to relieve our supply chains and rebuild American manufacturing, including by focusing on critical technologies like semiconductors.

We took an important step in the right direction last week after the House passed the companion legislation to USICA. I applaud the House for passing this legislation, and I join my Senate colleagues from both sides of the aisle in saying we are pleased to have gotten the ball rolling when we passed the USICA bill, formerly known as Endless Frontiers, last summer.

There’s a lot of work to do to enact USICA into law, so I look forward to moving quickly to a conference so the House and Senate can bridge the differences between our proposals. Once again I want to thank my colleagues from both sides of the aisle for leadership on this very important legislation.  

This will continue to be Democrats’ focus: lowering costs, increasing wages, and bringing jobs back from overseas while creating more jobs right here at home.

It’s what Democrats have worked on for the past twelve months as we’ve helped Americans get back to normal, and it’s what we will continue to focus on as we enter year two of the Biden Administration. 

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