Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I begin this morning with some news for my colleagues on both sides of the aisle. As stipulated by the National Emergencies Act, Democrats will once again force a vote to terminate the President's national emergency declaration. The provisions of the National Emergencies Act dictate that the resolution of disapproval be privileged and therefore must be voted upon.

As everyone no doubt remembers, the Trump administration declared a national emergency in February of this year after Congress repeatedly denied the President funding for the construction of a border wall that he promised Mexico would pay for. A few weeks ago, the administration released the list of military construction projects it has planned on canceling in order to steal money for the President's wall.

The President's emergency declaration was and is an outrageous power grab by a President who refuses to respect the constitutional separation of powers. I say to all of my colleagues, this issue rises to a large and vital constitutional issue: Does our country truly have checks and balances, particularly when we have such an overreaching President?

We all must consider the dangerous precedent this would set if Presidents could declare national emergencies every time their initiatives fail in Congress. It is outrageous. There is balance of powers. The President failed in Congress. He didn't say it was an emergency then, but he used the national emergency law, which is intended for true national emergencies--floods, states of war--and then overruled the will of the people as voiced in the Congress. This is so wrong. The President has clearly attempted to usurp the power of the purse given exclusively to the Congress by the Constitution to take funding from projects we have approved and give it to projects we have repeatedly declined to approve.

This goes to our democracy. This goes to how the Founding Fathers set up that delicate balance. We have never had such a President overreach on an emergency basis. The recourse for such a brazen power grab should be an overwhelming bipartisan vote in the Congress to terminate the emergency declaration and reassert our constitutional authority.

Most of my colleagues know this is wrong. In fact, when we had a vote the last time, 59 Senators--including a good number of Republicans-- voted against the emergency. What adds insult to injury is the President stealing the money from our military projects that protect our Nation, support military families, local economies, and local schools.

The Trump administration has proposed pilfering funds from projects in 23 States, 3 U.S. territories, and military installations in 20 countries, including $80 million from projects in North Carolina, $30 million in Arizona, and even a middle school in Kentucky. How do we say to the men and women who risk their lives for us and whose families sacrifice that the President is taking the money away, and we are going to shrug our shoulders--not this Senator, not this Member and not, I believe, every Member on our side and not a whole bunch on the Republican side.

We need more people to join us. I hope we will see an even larger majority stand up for both the Constitution and the military and its Members and their families. Democrats and Republicans alike should vote to terminate the President's national emergency declaration, and you can be sure we will make sure everyone will have a chance to do so within the next month.

If we don't do it, how many more emergencies will the President declare? Whom else will he take money from and to use for purposes he wants but that Congress doesn't and that the American people are largely opposed to? Government Funding

Madam President, on another matter, we have until the end of the month for Members of both parties to work together to fund the Federal Government, one of our most basic responsibilities as legislators.

At the end of July, both parties came together to produce a budget deal that set the blueprint for negotiations this fall. The same spirit of bipartisanship is required to move forward through the appropriations process, and it starts with good-faith discussions on how we allocate funding to 12 subcommittees. To be successful, that process must be fair, cooperative, and bipartisan.

Under a partisan process, we know what happens. We all lived through it just 9 months ago. The President demanded funding for a border wall and then shut down the government when Congress didn't give in to him. Now, just 9 months later, I read reports that Republicans are considering going down the same path again, potentially risking another government shutdown over the exact same issue. I believe there is good will on both sides of the aisle. We want to avoid a shutdown. Certainly, Republicans learned their lesson; it wasn't very good for them the last time. Both sides want to avoid a shutdown and both sides would prefer to have a real budget, not a CR. The way to get that done is for both parties to work together and keep the appropriations process bipartisan, not for the Republicans to tell the Democrats that these are the 302(b)s and this is the order in which we will do the bill. That is not bipartisan, and that is not what the bipartisan agreement called for. Background Checks

Madam President, finally, on guns, over the August recess, Leader McConnell promised we would hold a debate on gun violence when we returned to Washington. Now that we are back, Democrats will insist on holding Leader McConnell to his promise.

The debate on gun safety should be our first order of business, and the place to start a debate is a vote on the House-passed, bipartisan background checks bill. It is the foundation on which most other gun safety laws depend. We can't make a real dent in preventing gun violence without first catching the glaring loopholes in our laws that allow criminals, spousal abusers, and the adjudicated mentally ill to buy firearms without a background check.

Some are talking about the so-called red flag, but the red flag doesn't work if there is no background check. Mr. Jones is red-flagged. Then he goes online or goes to a gun show to buy a gun without a background check. The red flag doesn't work unless we tighten the loopholes--close the loopholes--on the background check law.

Later today, Republican leaders will meet with President Trump to talk about the congressional agenda this fall. Gun violence, according to the reports I have read, is expected to be a topic of the conversation. I strongly urge my Republican colleagues to prevail on the President to support universal background checks. Leader McConnell has said he will bring a bill to the floor if it has the President's support. That means there is a truly historic opportunity for President Trump to lead his party toward sensible gun safety laws that in the past, Republicans, in obeisance to the NRA, refused to support for decades.

Public support and public pressure is mounting from one end of the country to the other, with 93 percent of Americans supporting background checks. The vast majority of Republicans and gun owners--a vast majority--support it.

The President can provide Republicans important political cover. They shouldn't need it because so many Americans are for this, but they do because of the power sometimes exercised rather ruthlessly by the NRA. The President can do it. This is a moment of truth for the President, for Leader McConnell, and for all of my Republican colleagues.

The American people are fed up. Too many people are being killed across the country every day. Just yesterday, I was waiting at the airport, and a man came over to me and grabbed my arm and said to me that his nephew was a victim of gun violence. He pleaded with me for action. It is affecting more and more people, their families, their friends, and their communities. I imagine every one of my colleagues has met someone like this man over the past month.

The Mayor of Dayton, OH, Nan Whaley, joined with Democrats yesterday at a press conference--another incredibly compelling voice pushing for progress on this issue. We invited her to speak at our caucus lunch today. I expect my Republican colleagues have mayors in their States who, just like her, are exhausted by the daily gun violence in their cities. Republicans have a chance today to convince the President to do the right thing and come out in support of a policy that is not a figleaf, that is not milquetoast and will do nothing, but one that will actually save lives.

I strongly urge our Republican colleagues and Leader McConnell to use this afternoon's meeting at the White House to discuss supporting a bipartisan background checks bill.

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