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Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, it is not often that the U.S. Senate is called to act on a multitude of national security issues all at the same time. But right now, that is precisely the task at hand.

Vladimir Putin has waged war against Ukraine and against Western democracy for nearly 2 years. Israel suffered its bloodiest day last fall at the hands of the terror group Hamas, and millions of innocent Gaza civilians are in desperate need of aid. The Chinese Communist Party threatens to increase tensions in the Indo-Pacific. And our southern border is in urgent need--in urgent need--of fixing.

These are daunting challenges. They are time-sensitive challenges. And in the era of divided government, the only way--let me repeat--the only way to pass a national security supplemental is through bipartisanship--bipartisanship.

Over the course of this week, Democrats and Republicans have continued serious negotiations on the supplemental package. But there are still some pieces remaining to be settled.

Democrats have been exceedingly clear that we are willing to treat these negotiations with the seriousness they deserve. We have worked with Republicans on border security and on a vast range of issues and on coming to an agreement, and we want to finish the job.

The negotiators' tasks have not been easy because the more progress they make, the louder voices get on the outside who want to kill these negotiations in their tracks. There are always going to be some who prefer to exploit the issue of the border instead of fixing it. So the real question is whether Senators can tune all of that noise out and focus on reaching an agreement. Opportunities like this one are extremely rare when it comes to border security, so we owe it to the American people to seize this opportunity, and that is what Democrats want to do.

Senate Democrats remain committed to seeing this bipartisan process through. For the sake of our friends in Ukraine, for the sake of security on our border, for the sake of the future of Western democracy in the 21st century, we will keep working to get the job done.

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