No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. SCHUMER. We spent the past few days debating the resolution of disapproval of the Treasury Department's plan to relax sanctions on Russia. We have made clear that Treasury's plan is insufficient and lets Putin and his cronies off the hook. We have made clear that Putin's malign activities around the globe have not abated. We have made clear that there is no reason to relieve sanctions on one of our chief adversaries when there has been no reconciliation and in exchange for nothing.
Earlier this week, 10 brave Republicans joined us on the motion to proceed and again on cloture, but it was not enough for passage. So many other Republicans who have campaigned that Democrats are not tough enough on Putin, when they had a chance to be tough on Putin, ran for the exits. I just want to let my colleagues know that the House was different and in this case far more courageous.
The House passed the same resolution of disapproval 362 to 53. Republicans by more than a 2-to-1 ratio--more than 2 to 1--voted to not allow the loosening of sanctions on Deripaska's Rusal, as 136 of them joined with the unanimous--unanimous--support of House Democrats to pass the resolution.
So two votes--two small votes--stand in the way of passage here in the Senate. Let the overwhelming bipartisan House vote be a message to my Republican friends in the Senate. We should pass this resolution. We should not let Putin get his way simply because Donald Trump has always wanted him to--too often.
So I am going to shortly reconsider the resolution before it expires tonight at midnight. I strongly urge my friend the leader not to block the request and give Republican Senators a chance to change their minds on this incredibly important motion.
14, H.J. Res. 30; that the joint resolution be considered read for a third time and the Senate vote on passage with a 60-vote affirmative threshold, with no intervening action or debate; and that if the joint resolution fails to achieve 60 votes for passage, it be returned to the calendar.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source