Budget

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Now on the minibus, over the course of this week, I have worked closely with Democratic and Republican appropriators to move forward on the bipartisan Senate appropriations process. We have made a lot of progress this week trying to reach an agreement on amendments. We are getting close to an agreement, but we are not there yet, so we will keep working today.

Here in the Senate, unlike the chaos of the House, most Members on both sides want to see bipartisanship because that is the only way things move forward in a divided government. And the Appropriations Committee, under the leadership of Chair Murray and Ranking Member Collins, have done a very good job passing out all the bills with overwhelming bipartisan majorities, many of them unanimously.

But there is one crucial point: When we came to agreement to move these bills, both sides committed to stopping poison pill amendments because that would risk ending the process. Sadly, a small group on the other side have tried adding poison pills, and we have been dealing with them over the last few weeks. I am optimistic that we will work through these poison pills and pass these bipartisan bills soon.

Democrats made a commitment to our Republican colleagues to pursue regular order as much as possible because we want to get these appropriations bills done. We have committed to having debates and votes on relevant, non-poison pill amendments. I think there are 39 or so lined up. But while we are getting close, the work is not done.

We are going to keep working today. If people want to know why it is moving slowly, it is because of Republican insistence on poison pill amendments. But that is not going to stop us. We are going to keep moving forward, and we are going to try to vote on amendments soon.

So, once again, thank you to the whole Appropriations Committee on both sides. I am optimistic we can get this done.

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