Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On The Three Year Anniversary Of President Biden Signing The American Rescue Plan Into Law

Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on the three year anniversary of President Biden signing the American Rescue Plan into law, helping to propel the country out of the COVID crisis and put the US economy on a path to recovery. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Today is the three year anniversary of President Biden signing the American Rescue Plan into law, which I was proud to lead here in the Senate.

After Congress passed the ARP Plan, I said, “help is on the way.” That was the promise of the American Rescue Plan: to put shots in arms, to put money in people’s pockets, and to propel our country out of the COVID crisis.

Three years later, it’s safe to say that these investments paid off, and that the American Rescue Plan put America and our economy on a path toward the historic recovery we’re witnessing today.

Before the American Rescue Plan, job growth was unsteady and millions were at risk of losing their jobs. Three years later, we’ve seen the strongest three-year job growth in American history – in American history – over 15 million new jobs since President Biden took office.

Before the American Rescue Plan, the U.S. was losing manufacturing jobs by the day. Three years later, manufacturing investment – something that plagued America even before the pandemic – is near an all-time high, more than double its highest point during the previous administration.

Critics argued that the American Rescue Plan would cause excessive inflation. Well, three years later, inflation has cooled to the lowest levels since the start of the pandemic, from nine percent to just below three percent, meaning the prices of things like groceries, appliances, car rentals, and airfares have all come down.

In the American Rescue Plan, we secured significant pension reform through the passage of the Butch Lewis Act, which has helped millions and millions of American workers receive the financial security they earned through their labors.

I was proud to bring Deborah Hartman from Buffalo, New York as my guest to President Biden’s State of the Union last week. She called this critical plan “the best thing that’s happened to labor in I don’t know how many years,” – it means the world to working people.

We also included a dramatic expansion of the child tax credit, which helped millions and millions of families afford the cost of child care and other needs.

We provided millions in rental relief to help people keep a roof over their heads, billions in fiscal relief for states, cities, and localities to help them stay afloat, billions for education and broadband access to help kids get back in the classroom, and much more.

The bottom line is this: three years after President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan, it’s proving to be a historic win for American families, workers, and the economy.

And it’s thanks to the American Rescue Plan – and other landmark legislation we passed like the infrastructure law, CHIPS and Science, and the Inflation Reduction Act – that today, the U.S. economy is the envy of the world.

Of course, our work is far from over, but we can look back and be very proud of what we accomplished in the ARP. 

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