Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On The Senate Vote To Ratify The Treaty Accepting Finland and Sweden As Members Of NATO

Washington, D.C. –  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on the Senate voting to ratify Sweden and Finland’s applications to join NATO, which is imperative given Russian aggression. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Today the Senate will be voting on the resolution of ratification for the Finnish and Swedish applications to join NATO.

This is a very important vote—the NATO vote is a very important vote—for American security around the world: Finland’s and Sweden’s membership will strengthen NATO even further and is all the more urgent given Russian aggression, given Putin’s immoral and unjustified war in Ukraine. Putin is strengthening the NATO alliance, and nothing shows it better than the vote we will have this afternoon.

With a vote, the Senate will come together in a bipartisan manner, and bolster the Western alliance in the face of growing authoritarianism.

When Leader McConnell and I met with the Finnish President and the Swedish prime minister back in May, we made a commitment to get this done as quickly as possible, before the August Recess—and today we are keeping that commitment by working together. 

Despite the differences between both sides I have always said that when the opportunity arises, Democrats would be willing to work with Republicans in a bipartisan way to get things done

In the past few weeks we have seen an amazing string of bipartisan achievements—bipartisanship that hasn’t been seen recently, with passage of so many important bipartisan bills in such a short time.

Together we secured a historic investment in American science and industry, we just passed the largest expansion of veterans benefits in decades, we passed significant gun legislation, and today, we will work together to bolster the NATO alliance.

Again, under Democratic leadership, we want to work in a bipartisan way whenever we can, but when we can't, we will move forward on issues like climate and prescription drugs that we feel are very important, which I'll talk about in a minute.

Finally, as I mentioned yesterday, I invited the Ambassadors and other diplomats from Finland and Sweden to join us in the gallery during our debate and votes today. So let’s get this done by this afternoon. 

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