Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Working To Pass Much-Needed COVID Response Legislation

Washington, D.C. –  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor regarding the need for bipartisan cooperation to pass much-needed COVID public health response funding. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

I am continuing to hold negotiations with my Republican colleagues on much-needed COVID public health response funding.

Even though cases and deaths and hospitalizations are thankfully down and falling across the board, it is still necessary and a matter of great urgency that we replenish funding for more vaccines, more therapeutics, more testing and for new vaccines to meet the challenge of any new variant. The sooner we have these in place when—God forbid—a new variant hits, the healthier we'll stay, the more life will stay normal. To deny it now and then three months from now, or six months from now—or whenever—be unprepared and let [COVID] spread unchecked, until the COVID variant’s tentacles are too deep in our society, makes no sense whatsoever.

But to pass more COVID public health response funding, we need bipartisan cooperation. It is a responsibility of both Republicans and Democrats to make sure we have the tools and resources in place that will keep the virus down, keep our schools, keep our communities open. We are not there yet on reaching an agreement but we are going to keep working in good faith to get there.

I hope that we can reach an agreement with our Republican colleagues very soon, because nobody wants to find themselves in a situation where cases suddenly start rising again and we aren’t ready to respond quickly.

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