Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On The Need For Bipartisanship As MAGA Republicans Paralyze The House Of Representatives

Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on the MAGA Republicans grinding the House to a halt, preventing crucial aid from reaching Israel. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Thanks to MAGA Republicans, the U.S. House of Representatives has now been without a Speaker for two weeks, a paralysis in governing unprecedented in modern times.

Hard-right extremists in the House have ground the people’s House to a halt at the worst possible moment: at a time when our ally Israel faces its darkest hour, and the U.S. government shuts down in less than a month if we don’t act.

Today, the House will gavel in to try and break the impasse, though it seems like the chaos of the hard right has exposed the deep, perhaps irreparable divisions within the House GOP.

No matter who becomes Speaker, one lesson remains true: whether it’s funding the government, avoiding default, or helping American families, bipartisanship will be the only way things get done in a divided government. Bipartisanship is the only way, when there's a Democratic president, a Democratic Senate, and a Republican House, a small band of right-wing MAGA Republicans in the House cannot say it's my way or your way. You're a minority, MAGA Republicans. You're a minority in the Republican party. You're a minority with the people of America. You're a minority in this government. Certainly, your voices will be raised, and you'll want some say, but it can't be your way or no way.

Bipartisanship will be required to help Israel. It will be required to avoid a government shutdown. It will be required to finish the appropriations process. Bipartisanship will be required for just about everything, everything that happens in the Congress.

So, whoever the House elects as Speaker will not be able to ignore the realities of divided government, no matter what the hard right demands. As former Speakers Boehner, Ryan, and McCarthy have learned, you cannot let the hard right run the caucus, or you won't last as Speaker. And even worse, it will lead to more chaos at a time when the American people need unity and help and stability.

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