Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On The Need For Bipartisan Legislation To Avoid An Unnecessary And Harmful Government Shutdown

Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on Speaker Johnson's delayed vote on a partisan CR proposal and its critical shortcomings in areas like veterans' care, defense, border security, and health services. Leader Schumer stressed the need to pass bipartisan legislation to avoid a government shutdown. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

A few hours ago, Speaker Johnson announced that he delayed a vote scheduled for today on his partisan, insufficient, deeply flawed CR proposal.

Frankly, nobody should be surprised that Speaker Johnson is having trouble with his bill. It is not a serious effort at keeping the government open. It's a political document, not a substantive one.

The Speaker’s proposal suffers from many fatal flaws – above all it omits and shortchanges so many critical programs that Americans rely on every day.

For one, the Speaker’s proposal underfunds the Department of Veterans Affairs by $12 billion. That means veterans exposed to burn pits and who developed cancers and other diseases would struggle to get the care they need.

The Speaker’s proposal would also be a disaster for our armed forces. You can’t run a military with a six-month funding patch. The Secretary of Defense warned that it would hurt defense readiness, hamstring recruitment, risk crucial investments in our defense industrial base, and delay repairs and weapons modernization. Again, you can't run a military at a six-month patch at a time. They have to have contracts. They have to do research. They have to do planning.

The Speaker’s proposal is also a nonstarter for border security and immigration and law enforcement – his bill would effectively end a crucial law enforcement effort to stop drug smuggling, cartels, and money laundering.

It fails to extend funding for E-verify, H-2B Visas, and programs that stop drugs like fentanyl. All this from a Republican proposal, the party that supposedly loves to talk about border security. But talk is all it is if you take this stuff out of the bill.

And of course, if you are one of the tens of millions of Americans who rely on Social Security or disability benefits, watch out. The Speaker’s proposal contains no additional funding for the Social Security Administration’s operating budget, which would lead to delayed benefits, understaffed or closed field offices, and longer wait times for applications.

The Speaker’s CR fails on health care. It would endanger federal funding for telehealth services, which is one of the most important ways rural Americans get access to the care they need. The CR also fails to extend funding for Community Health Centers, which is often the only resource for millions of Americans who live in poverty or near poverty – but fall in the grey zone right above the Medicaid line, With the Community Health Centers, they get good health care. Those would be gone.

And the Speaker’s plan fails to do anything on the farm bill, which if it expires would send farmers over the dairy cliff in December, risking closure of farms and sending the cost of products like milk and cheese through the roof. So, it would cost the average consumer.

Now, we all know the end game here for the hard-right. A six-month stopgap means we’d have a funding fight all over again in March, at the beginning of a new Administration.

It is pretty transparent that the hard-right wants to delay this fight until then in hopes of being able to pass the bulk of Donald Trump’s Project 2025 agenda.

And we all know what Project 2025 is all about. The hard-right wants to turn our country inside out, and institute the most conservative agenda America has seen in modern history.

Project 2025 would mean the end of the Department of Education. It would eliminate head start programs, which help millions of kids in poverty get a good start in their education. It would wipe out funding that helps kids get free and reduced lunch at school. It would send the cost of child care shooting up, leaving parents exasperated, making it harder for them to make a living.

Project 2025 would also betray our veterans. It would lead to cuts to disability benefits by shrinking medical conditions that qualify. It would revive a Trump-era commission that would defund VA hospitals, including the only VA Hospital on Long Island, the Northport VA.

How cruel can you get? How in the world can you think this is an OK thing to do to the brave Americans who wore the uniform?

Project 2025 would lay the groundwork for the nightmare scenario of a national abortion ban. It would effectively clear the way for states to monitor women’s pregnancies and threaten federal health funding if they don’t comply.

This is all outlandishly sinister. Yet it is precisely what the hard-right is promising the American people if Donald Trump returns to office.

And make no mistake, there is no better opportunity for Republicans to ram these cruel policies down Americans’ throats than in a government funding fight early next March.

A six month CR – particularly one that fails to fund important programs, some of which I outlined a few minutes ago – is therefore not the answer for avoiding a shutdown later this month.

Speaker Johnson ought not bother with merely delaying his vote – he should scrap it, scrap his plan, and start over. Speaker Johnson, scrap your plan. Don't just delay the vote. Find a better one that can pass in a bipartisan way.

Leader Jeffries, the President, and I will gladly and readily work with the Speaker to keep the government open, just as we worked with him earlier this year on funding levels that honored our agreement from the debt ceiling debate.

I hope, I pray, Speaker Johnson will soon acknowledge the inevitable: we need a bipartisan plan to keep the government open.

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