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Floor Speech
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Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, first, let me start out today by saying it is a great day to be a Buffalo Bills fan. For the fourth year in a row, the Buffalo Bills have won the AFC East championship, squishing the fish last night by defeating the Miami Dolphins 21 to 14. What an incredible night. What an incredible win. What an incredible team. Buffalo is truly the Beast of the East.
It hasn't been the easiest season for the Bills, but this team can be summed up in one word: perseverance. They never gave up. They never threw in the towel. And last night, it began to pay off because they are on their way to the playoffs.
In true Buffalo fashion, Bills Mafia showed up in the early hours of the morning at the Buffalo Airport to welcome their team home. And, of course, it seemed like half of the people at the Miami stadium were Bills fans as well.
Congratulations to Buffalo. Congratulations to Coach Sean McDermott and the whole team as well. Let's keep going. And, as always, go Bills. business before the senate
Madam President, now on the new year, I would like to begin the 2nd session of the 118th Congress by wishing you and all of my colleagues a happy new year. I hope everyone was able to spend time with family, with friends, and meet constituents.
This past Christmas-New Year's recess, however, was a busy, consequential, and most of all a productive time for the U.S. Senate. Senators and staff worked straight through Christmas and straight through the new year on avoiding a government shutdown, on protecting America's security, even protecting the future of Western democracy, and we made some real progress.
First, I have excellent news on government funding. Yesterday, I announced with Speaker Johnson that congressional leaders have reached a top-line agreement for government funding for the 2024 fiscal year. When we began our negotiations, our goal was to preserve a nondefense funding level of $772 billion--the same level agreed to in our debt ceiling deal last June. That $772 billion was precisely the number we reached. Not a nickel was cut. Again, our goal was $772 billion, and that is precisely the number we reached in this bipartisan agreement.
The agreement now clears the way for Congress to act in the coming weeks to avoid a government shutdown, while also preserving key domestic programs that benefit millions of Americans. The framework agreement will enable the appropriators to address many of the major challenges Americans face at home and abroad. It also allows us to keep the investments for hard-working American families that congressional Democrats and President Biden secured through our legislative agenda.
Both parties reached this agreement without resorting to the painful and draconian cuts that the hard right--particularly those in the Freedom Caucus--clamored for. The hard right wanted to put a chopping block on programs that help millions of Americans. So I am happy to say that Democrats protected vital priorities like housing programs, veterans' benefits, healthcare, nutrition programs, small business support, the National Health Service--the NHS--and funding for Federal law enforcement.
I am particularly pleased that we will protect the historic climate investment Democrats passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. The hard right wanted to use the appropriations process to undo our climate investments. Democrats said no, and we held the line.
The hard right also wanted to make cuts to the IRS so that the ultrarich tax cheats could weasel their way out of paying their fair share. By keeping the cuts at $20 billion, I am happy to say this agreement will not affect the IRS's ability to keep holding the richest tax cheats accountable. Remember, when Democrats passed the Inflation Reduction Act, we gave the IRS new tools to audit the richest of the rich who don't pay their fair share. All these tools will remain in place.
So this top-line agreement is an excellent start to the year because it is a huge step towards avoiding a government shutdown. Of course, our work must continue. Producing 12 appropriations bills will not be easy. It is going to require agreement from the four corners and a lot more compromise between the parties.
And make no mistake--Democrats have made clear to Speaker Johnson that we will not support the inclusion of any poison pills in any of the 12 appropriations bills before the Congress. In a statement that Leader Jeffries and I put out yesterday, we made it clear that we will not accept poison pills. If the hard right chooses to spoil this agreement with poison pills, they will be to blame if we start careening towards a shutdown. I know Speaker Johnson has said that nobody wants to see a shutdown happen.
Finally, thank you to my colleagues on both sides in both Chambers who made this agreement possible. I want to particularly thank my staff, who worked morning, noon, and night over the past few weeks. I must have spoken to them 10, 12 times a day every day and even several times on Christmas Day because getting this done was so important.
The next few weeks are not going to be easy, but the Democrats--we Democrats--are committed to working as hard as we can to avoid a government shutdown.
I hope our Republican colleagues, particularly in the House--we have good cooperation here in the Senate--are ready to do the same.
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