Schumer Floor Remarks On The Upcoming Senate Vote On House-Passed Legislation To Reopen The Government – Legislation That Would Provide Relief To Hundreds Of Thousands Of Federal Workers Suffering Because Of The Trump Shutdown
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer today spoke on the Senate floor
regarding the upcoming Senate vote on House-passed legislation to reopen the
government – legislation that would provide relief to hundreds of thousands of
federal workers suffering because of the Trump Shutdown. Below are his remarks,
which can also be viewed here:
Mr.
President, yesterday the Republican Leader, my friend, announced that the
Senate would hold two votes on Thursday afternoon. First, the Senate will vote
on the president’s proposal, and then the Senate will vote on an amendment that
is essentially identical to the underlying bill sent to us from the House,
meaning a continuing resolution that opens the government for three weeks plus
disaster assistance.
Let me
be very clear: these two votes are not equivalent votes. It’s not on the one
hand, on the other hand. The President’s proposal demands a wall and radical
legal immigration changes in exchange for opening up the government. The second
vote demands nothing in exchange for opening the government. So the first vote,
unless you do it my way, “I’m keeping the government shut down” – it’s the
Trump amendment. Our amendment: open up the government and then let’s talk. To
say: well, one is a Democratic amendment, one’s a Republican amendment doesn’t
get the magnitude of this, the difference. Because one is holding 800,000
workers hostage, millions of Americans hostage, unless the amendment authors
get their way. The second says: we’re not demanding anything. Just open up the
government and then let’s discuss it.
The
first vote is completely partisan. The first vote is the president’s
hostage-taking position codified into an amendment. It says: you must do it our
way – 5.7 billion dollars for a wall – before we open the government.
The
second vote is the opposite. It does not demand anything before we reopen the
government. It simply reopens the government for three weeks and allows us to
continue debating border security. There is nothing partisan about the second
vote. If President Trump weren’t opposed to it, there would be nothing
controversial about the second vote and just about every Republican would vote
for it like they did the first time a month ago. The second vote is not a
Democratic proposal with Democratic demands. The first vote is a Republican
proposal with Republican demands. One simply reopens the government – the other
says no way, no way. It embodies the president’s temper tantrum. If you don’t
do it my way I’m shutting down the government and hurting lots of people. So
the two votes are not equivalent. It’s not on the one hand, on the other. They
are diametrically opposed in concept.
Now, I
do give Leader McConnell credit. He put on the floor, for the first time, an
ability for Senators to vote on a clean proposal to reopen the government –
that’s the second vote. It is completely silent on the issue of border
security. A vote for the continuing resolution does not preclude a continued
discussion on how we best secure our border. It doesn’t say pro wall or
anti-wall – it just says open up the government. It is a way to reopen the
government while we continue to work out our differences.
I want
my friends, my Republican friends, to understand the stakes here. Reopening the
government for three weeks may not sound like a long time, but it’s massively
important to 800,000 public servants who have been languishing without pay.
Reopening the government even for three weeks would mean that all 800,000 get
their back pay – to which they are entitled. Three full paychecks: one for
January 11th, one for January 25th, one for February 8th.
Let me repeat that: even a three-week continuing resolution would provide a full
three paychecks to our federal employees – TSA, border patrol, FBI agents; air
traffic controllers; food safety inspectors; Coast Guard. Every one of the ones
I mentioned involves our security.
The president
says, totally incorrectly, misstating all the facts, that we need a big wall
for our security. Well, even if he succeeds, which he won’t, I believe, it
would take years to build that wall. And there’s eminent domain and so many
other issues that it might never be built at all. But hurting TSA, hurting
border patrol, hurting FBI agents, air traffic controllers, food safety
inspectors, Coast Guard members? They deal with our security right now. Right
now. So if you believe in the security of America you vote yes on the second
vote – no matter what you think of the wall.
The
American people – it’s amazing – more and more, they were on our side to start
with; they’re turning more on our side now. In a CBS poll this morning, seven
out of ten Americans say the issue of a border wall is not worth this
government shutdown, including 71% of independents, but astoundingly 43% of all
Republicans say a border wall is not worth a government shutdown! Close to half
of all Republican voters are saying to President Trump and Leader McConnell and
to every Republican senator in this chamber: don’t keep this shutdown going
over the wall. Don’t hold the government hostage. Open it back up and figure
out your policy differences.
Because
of the president’s destructive hostage-taking gambit, as I said, his
disapproval rating reached the highest level of his presidency in the CBS poll.
And I would remind my colleagues, parenthetically, that this poll and another
one this morning that showed the same thing – with President Trump’s ratings
lower than ever – occurred after his speech on Saturday. So his gambit
to try and get the shutdown off his back failed, as it should have. Because the
shutdown is solely his. He said he was proud of it. He said 25 times before he
did it that he wanted to do it. Everyone knows the shutdown is his, and neither
the president nor our Republican friends can squiggle out of that one.
What
more do my Republican colleagues need to hear? The will of the American people
is crystal clear: open the government. I know that President Trump has some
power in these Republican primaries but sometimes you have to rise to the
occasion. Rise to the occasion. The second bill, without any preconceptions,
preconditions, says open the government. The first bill: hostage-taking.
“Unless you do it my way, the government is staying shut down.” So these are
not equivalent bills. These are not “on the one hand,” “on the other hand.”
For
weeks, Mr. President, we’ve been at a stalemate. Leader McConnell has not
allowed a vote on legislation to reopen the government until now. Tomorrow, the
Senate will finally have its chance.
We can
vote to reopen the government until February 8th and continue to
discuss border security.
So if
you’re worried about the hundreds of thousands of federal employees going
without pay; if you’re worried about the impacts of the shutdown on our
economy, or our basic security, as law enforcement and border patrol and food
safety are not paid; if you’re worried about our national security’; and if
you’re looking for a way to open up the government, this is the way – the
second vote – the only way that’s on the floor of the Senate and can actually
open up the government.
I urge
all of my Republican colleagues, as they did once before President Trump said
what he said – join us Democrats, bipartisan, on the second vote tomorrow and
finally open up the government.
###
