Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On The Urgent Need To Pass A Historic National Security Supplemental Package Including Support For Ukraine

Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on the urgent need to pass the national security supplemental package and the need for Republicans to show they are serious about getting something done as negotiations continue. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Negotiations continue today between Democrats, Republicans, and the Biden Administration on an emergency national security supplemental package. The stakes are high. Time is of the essence.

Democrats are still trying – still trying – to meet our Republican colleagues in the middle and reach an agreement. Negotiators met yesterday afternoon – it was a productive meeting, real progress was made, but of course, there’s still a lot of work to do. We’ll keep working today to get closer to an agreement.

The two words I’ve used to describe each party here in the Senate continue to be relevant. Democrats are still trying to reach an agreement. Republicans need to show they’re still serious about getting something done. Democrats trying, Republicans need to be serious.

Unfortunately, too many Republicans now seem more interested about flying home for the holidays than sticking around to finish the job. For months, Republicans insisted that action on the border is a crisis that can’t wait, but with the holidays around the corner, they’re suddenly saying never mind, this can wait till next year. If Republicans say the border is an emergency, then they should be prepared to stay.

Crying fire about the border one minute and then saying we should go home the next is the definition of unserious. An emergency is an emergency.

If you argue there’s an emergency at the border, an emergency in Ukraine, you can’t pretend to be serious about solving them if you think we should go home.

Now, months ago, the Biden Administration put forward a comprehensive plan to tackle border security. For weeks, we implored our Republican colleagues to get serious and offer a credible, bipartisan proposal, not Donald Trump’s extreme border policies as contained in H.R. 2. Weeks were wasted. And now here we are – progress is being made, but progress must be allowed to be continued. Yes, this is difficult – very difficult. But we’re sent here to do difficult things.

If Republicans are serious about getting something done on the border, why are so many in a hurry to leave? Do they not want to reach an agreement on border security? Republicans should not be so eager to go home.

I hope we can reach an agreement very soon to pass a supplemental through the Senate because the only people happy right now about the gridlock in Congress are Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. Putin is delighting in the fact that Donald Trump's border policies are sabotaging military aid to Ukraine.

Republicans should not be so content to throw their hands in the air and kick the can down the road. Our friends in Ukraine, after all, are not on our timeline. They don’t get a Christmas break on the battlefield.

Their fight against Vladimir Putin is a matter of life and death, and if Putin prevails it will come back to haunt the United States – and the whole Western world – in the very near future.

So, if my Republican friends care at all about taking a stand against Russian autocrats, they should get serious about reaching an agreement.

If Republicans care about defending democracy, about protecting freedom and preserving America’s values around the world, they should get serious about reaching an agreement.

If Republicans truly think the border is an emergency, and if they truly support the cause of the Ukrainian people as they claim, then they should get serious about reaching an agreement very soon.

We are writing a chapter in history this week. Will Republican obstruction hand a democratic country over to the forces of autocracy? Will autocrats see America’s inaction as a green light to keep going?  Will places like Taiwan come next?

Or will we do what America has done again and again and again throughout America’s glorious history, and stand with our democratic friends in need? 

Will we do what’s necessary to keep the democratic order the U.S. helped create after the Second World War? These are the stakes.

Senate Democrats have made clear which side of history we want to be on. We want to stand with President Zelenskyy and the brave people of Ukraine. 

We want to stand for democratic order. We hope – we hope – our Republican colleagues are ready to do the same.

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