Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On The Senate Moving Toward Passage Of Three Bipartisan Appropriations Bills Later Today
Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor regarding the Senate moving toward passage of three bipartisan appropriations bills today. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:
Today, we will pass the first three bipartisan appropriations bills: Agriculture, MilCon-VA, and T-HUD.
When these bills pass, they will be the only – I underscore, the only – bipartisan appropriations bills that have passed either chamber. These bills will make a huge difference for America’s farmers, for our infrastructure, for housing, on our military bases and veterans.
Bipartisanship isn’t easy – on the contrary it is very difficult – but here in the Senate we are making sure that the appropriations process is succeeding. I want to thank the good work of Chair Murray, Vice Chair Collins, and all the appropriators.
Passing these appropriations bills today is not just terrific news for the country, but an affirmation of what I have said since the start of the year: the only way to get things done in divided government is bipartisanship.
The House is going through a futile exercise of passing partisan appropriations bills that have no input or support from Democrats. They're going nowhere. The House ought to learn its lesson. The Speaker ought to understand that the thirty hard-right people should not be dictating what the entire House or the entire country does. Those bills are filled with poison pills, they break the agreement, and cut below the agreement that we made when we wanted to avoid the debt from being not fulfilled, and they're nowhere. On the other hand, the Senate has bipartisan bills, and that is the real difference here. Sooner or later, the House and the new Speaker will learn the lesson: if you don't do it bipartisan, it ain't getting done.
The Senate has been a strong model for how bipartisanship can work even amidst deep disagreement, and I thank my colleagues on both sides for their work on these bills.
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