Business Before the Senate

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, this week, the Senate returns with precious little time left to finish important matters of business. Last week, both Houses of Congress passed the annual Defense bill with veto- proof majorities. If President Trump takes the rather ridiculous step of vetoing a pay raise for our troops in order to defend the honor of dead Confederate traitors--or whatever other contrived grounds he comes up with--Congress must override that veto.

On Friday, both Chambers of Congress also passed a 1-week continuing resolution, giving us until the end of this week to finish an omnibus appropriations bill to fund the government. As usual, the appropriations bill will include several important pieces of related legislation. One that doesn't get enough attention is a bipartisan energy bill.

Earlier this year, during the debate over the Energy bill, Senate Democrats insisted that a provision to reduce HFCs--a very harmful greenhouse gas that is driving our climate change problem--must be included in the bill. Unfortunately, we had to hold up the bill until a bipartisan agreement could be reached on this critical provision, which would be the single biggest victory in the fight against climate change to pass this body in a decade.

Today, I am very happy to report that we have made very good progress toward an agreement on HFC reduction. We are about to get it done. That is one of the biggest victories to fight global warming in a very long time.

I want to thank Senators Carper, Kennedy, and Barrasso. They have worked very diligently and very hard to craft a compromise.

Finally, as we all know, it is imperative we pass another round of emergency Federal relief from the continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, the bipartisan group of Senators who have been diligently working toward an agreement will announce the results of their work: a package of over $900 billion that includes an agreement on assistance to State and local government. Notably, there is no agreement on corporate immunity. We look forward to reviewing their work. Democrats remain 100 percent committed to getting another round of emergency relief to the American people before the end of the year and in a robust, bold way because America needs it so badly.

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