Business Before the Senate

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, yesterday, I mentioned the several big- ticket items left on the congressional agenda before the end of the year. Over the next few weeks, the Senate must pass an appropriations bill to keep the government funded. We must pass the annual Defense bill, a piece of legislation that Congress has passed every year for nearly 60 years in a row. And a top priority as well is a major COVID relief bill.

We are in a moment of genuine national catastrophe. The rate of new cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are at the highest, or near the highest, of any point during this awful pandemic. The economic fallout of the pandemic spreads and spreads. November saw the largest single 2-week jump in unemployment benefit applications since early April, and enhanced job benefits are only a few weeks from expiration.

The time has come for Congress to pass a bipartisan COVID relief bill that meets the needs of our workers, our families, our schools, and our businesses. The Republican leader of this Chamber knows very well that the only way to pass legislation in the Senate is with a measure of bipartisanship. But time and time again, the Republican leader's idea of action on COVID has been to bring partisan legislation to the floor and then demand everyone accept it.

Every single iteration has included poison pills designed to ensure that the bill is bad--not consensus proposals. That is not what these poison pills are at all, and he knows darn well the Democrats don't agree to them. Well, that is no way to do business around here.

The leader's view seems to be that the only things that should be considered in the next COVID relief bill are items that Republicans approve of, even if the needs of the country go way beyond what is on their narrow list. So I would plead again to the Republican leader and to my colleagues on the other side, we need to come together. Both sides--both sides--must be willing to compromise.

While the Republicans in this Chamber enjoy a majority, they must grapple with the fact that Democrats hold a majority in the House. We cannot make a law without Democrats in the House, and, frankly, Democratic votes in the Senate because there are a good number of Republicans who won't vote for any proposal.

So we need a true bipartisan bill, not another round of partisan Republican proposals put forward by the leader and then he makes take- it-or-leave-it demands, and that is it. We need to come together and come to agreement that will not satisfy any one of us completely but gets the job done. I hope that as we get closer to the end of the year, partisan posturing on the Republican side will give way to some genuine compromises.

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