Executive Session
Floor Speech
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Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I watched the President on TV this morning, and like most Americans, so many Americans, I was aghast. The President seems to live in an alternative reality. He says things that are patently false, and he thinks that just by saying them, they become true. With the number of 180-degree turns--direct contradictions to what he has said before--the name-calling, and blaming, if you watched the President this morning and the way he acted, it was so unbecoming of a President, unbecoming of a democracy.
We believe in truth. People may have different value systems, but to just make up things as he goes along and to, without blinking an eye, contradict things that he said that were exactly the opposite a few hours, a few days, a few weeks ago is not who any President of any party of any ideology should be.
What the President said this morning was embarrassing to America, to democracy, and to any American who prizes truth.
One of the things the President said this morning was that he has decided not to be involved in the Russia probe but may change his mind. That is why it is so good this morning that the Judiciary Committee is marking up bipartisan legislation that will protect Special Counsel Mueller from political interference.
From the very beginning, Special Counsel Mueller's investigation has been about following the facts of how a foreign, hostile power interfered with our free and fair elections--the wellspring of our democracy. That investigation must be allowed to proceed safely from the President's heavy hand. The President can't make this go away by name-calling. He can't dispute facts. He can't dispute the fact that Russia's interfering in our election is very dangerous and must be investigated no matter where it leads.
It is so abundantly clear from the President's remarks this morning and from so many other things he has said that he has little regard for the rule of law. He seems to have this view that the purpose of the Justice Department is to protect his interests and persecute his enemies. That is not a democracy. The purpose of the Justice Department is to defend the rule of law, and no man or woman is above the law. It is not, simply, to go after his friends. He is angry when the Justice Department does something he doesn't like even though it is following the law. Again, that is not the hallmark of our democracy.
I am so proud of our Judiciary Committee and Chairman Grassley in their rising to the occasion--proposing and hopefully passing legislation that says we will protect the rule of law and that we will protect our democracy by not allowing the President to fire the special counsel at will because he simply doesn't like the results he comes up with.
Again, the Judiciary Committee, this morning, makes us proud. It rises to the occasion to tell the President that he cannot tamper with the very wellsprings of our democracy and that he will pay a bipartisan price if he does.
I particularly praise Chairman Grassley. We have worked together on many things, and we have had our differences on many things, but this morning he is rising to the occasion. History regards such moments very favorably. I hope we will get a large vote this morning. Appropriations Process
Madam President, while we are speaking about bipartisanship, there is another bit of good news. There are two shoots of bipartisanship springing up today--the Judiciary Committee's action on preventing the President from firing Mueller and an agreement between Senator Shelby, Leader McConnell, and me to try to begin moving appropriations bills the way we used to--in a bipartisan way.
We had a very good meeting yesterday in which we laid out the parameters of how to do this. We talked about not letting extraneous amendments disrupt the process. We talked about doing our job the way it used to be done--doing all of the appropriations bills this year and doing them in a bipartisan way, having the chairs and ranking members of the subcommittees work together to craft a bill that both sides can be happy with even though neither side will be happy with everything in it.
I hope that it moves forward. I pledge to the Members of this body and to the American people that I am committed to making that process move forward in a fair, bipartisan way and to trying to restore some of the semblance of bipartisanship that we used to have in this place and bring it back to actual action and reality, not just verbiage. VA Secretary Nomination
Madam President, we just received word that the President's nominee to be the next Secretary of the VA has withdrawn his nomination. The allegations swirling around the nomination of Dr. Jackson were troubling and raised lots of questions, but the real blame here falls on the administration for once again being sloppy and careless in the vetting process. Dr. Jackson didn't go through a careful vetting. Some of these things might have been discovered beforehand, and he wouldn't have had to go through the process he went through.
The Veterans' Affairs Committee did the right thing. They didn't seek to go after Jackson; people came to them. When people come to them-- particularly military folks--with serious and troubling allegations, they have an obligation to investigate. I salute Chairman Isakson and Ranking Member Tester for pursuing those allegations.
Dr. Jackson went through a maelstrom, and he should tell his patient, I guess, the President, that he, the President, caused this problem by not properly vetting, by making these decisions on the fly, by making sure they don't count.
Our obligation above all is not to any one individual but to the millions of veterans in America. They deserve a department that treats them well. They deserve the best healthcare, and we need someone to run the VA who is up to the job.
I hope the President learns his lesson. I hope the next nominee is thoroughly vetted before he or she is sent to the Congress. Most of all, I hope our veterans can get the kind of leader they deserve. Healthcare
Madam President, finally, on another matter--healthcare--next week, health insurance companies will begin to announce their initial proposed rates for 2019 in each State across the country. When they do, every American should remember that President Trump and congressional Republicans have spent the last 1\1/2\ years trying to sabotage our healthcare system in a way that would increase costs and decrease access to quality healthcare.
It is true that last summer the Senate Republican effort to repeal our current healthcare system and gut Medicaid--an effort that would have left tens of millions uninsured and raised costs on millions more--ended, thankfully for the American people, in failure.
Despite that legislative failure, President Trump, his administration, and congressional Republicans have committed several other acts of sabotage--raising premiums and hurting healthcare--all, it seems to me, for a political vendetta.
For a long time, the President refused to guarantee that the administration will honor the cost-sharing program, which reduces premiums and out-of-pocket expenses for low-income Americans. He eventually canceled payments for that program, causing major uncertainty and confusion in the markets.
Then, Republicans repealed the healthcare coverage requirement as a part of their tax bill and put nothing in its place. The CBO projects that repealing the coverage requirement could cause rates to increase by as much as 10 percent and result in millions more people without insurance. So if you can't get insurance, Mr. or Mrs. American, or if your premiums are going up, you know who caused it--the President and congressional Republicans by sabotaging the law that a majority of Americans want to see stay on the books.
Making things worse, earlier this week, the comment period ended for a proposed Trump administration rule that is perhaps the most radical sabotage of our healthcare system yet--a rule that would expand the availability of junk insurance plans. These junk insurance plans would force higher premiums on people with preexisting conditions, impose an age tax on older Americans, and once again could subject Americans to the devastating effects of medical bankruptcy, which too many people go through now. Many plans might not cover essential services, such as prescription drugs, maternity care, and mental health services.
Each of these actions taken by President Trump and Republicans in Congress will raise costs and reduce access. We are truly living under TrumpCare today, with no effort by the President or congressional Republicans to make it better.
Unfortunately, starting next week, the American people could well see the devastating consequences of 1\1/2\ years of healthcare sabotage reflected in the 2019 rates. National Memorial for Peace and Justice
Finally, Madam President, I would like to add a word about an event taking place today in Montgomery, AL. Today in Montgomery, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, dedicated to the legacy of enslaved Black people, victims of lynching, and African Americans who have been victimized by White supremacy, will open its doors.
I read about the new memorial in the newspaper. It was touching. It was moving. So many innocent people were lynched for no reason--walking behind a White woman, other kinds of things like that. Having read and watched the accounts about the memorial, it will be a harrowing experience. Much like the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, it forces visitors to confront the human toll of racism, America's original sin. And it allows each county to get a replica of a list on a block--sort of like a tombstone--of who was lynched. So maybe those counties can look into their souls, too, and do better, as we all can, at trying to eliminate racism.
America's original sin is racism and the vast and terrible numbers of African Americans who were brutally murdered for simply being Black. This museum forces us, as Martin Luther King did, to look into the mirror and see what the country has done wrong and move to correct it.
I truly salute all the folks who put this wonderful, wonderful museum together.
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Mr. SCHUMER. The majority, I think.
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Mr. SCHUMER. Thank you. I appreciate very much the remarks of my friend from Kansas. I hope these sprouts of bipartisanship can grow into mighty oaks.
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