Unanimous Consent Request--H.R. 9051

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, well, I can't remember the last time the Senate convened on New Year's Day. I want to take this opportunity to wish all of my colleagues a happy new year. I want to thank the staff for having to come into work on New Year's Day, and I want to bid good riddance to 2020.

There can be no question that last year was a horrible year--as they have said in Britain, an ``annus horribilis.'' But as we begin the first year of this new decade, preparing to inaugurate a new President and inoculate the country against this virus, the American people have reason to hope.

The Senate can start off this new year by adding to that sense of hope by sending $2,000 checks to struggling American families. The Senate can start off 2021 by really helping the American people. We can start off 2021 by sending $2,000 checks to struggling American families to carry them through the darkest and final days of this pandemic.

The votes today, on this uncommon New Year's Day session, could be the last of the 116th Congress. That means that today is the last chance to take up and pass the House bill to provide $2,000 checks to the American people. If the Senate does not take action today, $2,000 checks will not become law before the end of Congress, and they will know that Leader McConnell and the Republican majority have prevented them from getting the checks, plain and simple.

This is the last chance--the last chance for a mother in Nashville, $4,000 behind on the rent, whose water was shut off earlier this month. This is the last chance--the last chance for the medical receptionist in Macomb, $2,100 behind on the rent, whose electricity was shut off in September, on her son's third day of virtual kindergarten. The kid can't go to school. This is the last chance for 12 million Americans who have fallen nearly $6,000 behind on rent and utility or the 26 million Americans who have had trouble putting food on the table--the last chance.

Make no mistake about it, $600 has never been enough for them. This is the last chance to deliver $2,000 before a new Congress is sworn in and the legislative process must start all over again.

For once, we have progressive Democrats, conservative Republicans, the President himself, and not to mention the majority--the vast majority--of the American people singing from the same songbook in support of these checks. We have a bill that has already passed the House.

All we are asking for is a simple vote in the Senate. I, for one, am confident it would pass if given the chance, and that may be the real reason that Leader McConnell and the Republicans don't want to bring it up. We have had many opportunities this week to vote on the measure. Senator McConnell has blocked every one of them.

We have offered to vote on whatever unrelated issues the Republican leader says he wants to vote on, so long as we can get a clean vote on the House bill to provide $2,000 checks--the only way to actually make it happen in this year, in this session of Congress. That offer still stands. That offer still stands. But give us a vote. Give us a vote on the House bill.

It is OK if the Republican leader opposes checks. It is OK if the majority of Republican Senators oppose the checks. They can make their case to the American people and oppose the bill, but let us vote. It is OK if the Republican leader wants to call direct assistance to American people ``poorly targeted'' and ``socialism for the rich,'' even after he drove the passage of a $2 trillion across-the-board reduction in corporate taxes. But give us a vote. Make the argument. Let the Senate work its will.

To me, it seems like the Republican leader is afraid to schedule a vote on $2,000 checks because he is afraid it will pass. What a terrifying thought that struggling Americans would get some money to feed their families, pay the rent, and get on with their lives; pay the utility bill of that kindergarten kid or third grade kid who can't even go to school because his family can't afford electricity.

We have a chance--a chance at the end of this painful year and at the beginning of a new one--to give Americans reason for hope in 2021. The only thing standing in the way right now is Leader McConnell and the Republican Senate majority.

In a moment, I will ask consent for the final time that the Senate set a time for a vote on the House bill to provide $2,000 checks. I have done it every day this week. This is it, the last chance for the 116th Congress to pass $2,000 checks and to say to regular Americans: ``Help is on the way.''

Let's have a vote. Let's have a vote. Pass this bill. There is no better way to usher in the new year.

645, H.R. 9051, a bill to increase recovery rebate amounts to $2,000 per individuals; that the bill be read a third time and the Senate vote on passage; and if passed, that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

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Mr. SCHUMER. Someday soon.

(Laughter.)

Mr. President, the only thing I would say, through the Chair, to my friend from South Dakota is that the many proposals he proposed as alternatives to our proposal are those to which the Republican majority objected when we had our negotiations on the CARES bill. We believe this can be in addition to the expansion of unemployment insurance and other things. Given the state of the economy, that is what is needed.

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