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Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I just got back from Albany and Syracuse, where I visited two of our community health centers--the Syracuse Community Health Center and the Hometown Health Center in Schenectady. These community health centers do amazing work--amazing work. They provide good, effective, efficient healthcare for so many people. In New York State, about 2.4 million people get help from the community health centers. In Central New York that I visited in Syracuse, about 80,000, and in the Capital Region, where Albany is, 110,000.

Let me say that when President Trump instituted his freeze, his funding freeze, it sent shock waves through these two centers and hundreds of others across the country. All of a sudden, payments frozen, funding frozen--no reasoning, no logic, nothing. They wondered: Do they have to lay off people? Could they pay the rent?

They wondered if they could give healthcare, you know, for someone who had a 2-week plan. Maybe the doctor shouldn't prescribe it in week 1 because money wouldn't be around in week 2.

They depend on Federal funding. They get somewhere between 15 to 20 percent of their funding. They have been going on since the 1960s and delivering great, efficient healthcare. And, all of a sudden, this funding freeze drops on them like a ton of bricks.

And it wasn't just community health centers--veterans organizations, mental health, organizations that provide mental help for people, Head Start.

In Western New York, two of our Head Starts in rural America, in rural Western New York, closed, and 200 families--200 families--had to struggle to find what to do, because when you are a single mom or a single dad or even a mom and dad, a two-parent family, and there is nobody there watching the kids--there is no Head Start--what are you going to do? Should I stay home from work--maybe risk salary being docked, even losing my job?

It was horrible. This occurred across the country.

Now, thank God, people rebelled. Thank God, people made their voices heard, and the funding freeze was rescinded. But the damage still is there.

There is a healthcare center, where I visited in Syracuse--this one was in the Mohawk Valley--that funding of $71,000 on a thing they were building stopped. Five centers in Virginia closed. And funding is still intermittent in healthcare centers throughout New York State and throughout the country.

Cruel, unfair, awful. These programs help people. No, they don't help the billionaires. I get it. But they help average folks and poorer people get the healthcare they need. They help them see a doctor so that preventive care can happen, which we all know saves us money. They are a shining example of public service that does enormous good for millions of families.

And to anyone who says that these are examples of inefficiency or waste, visit one. Visit some of the scores of them that are in New York. They are the most efficient, effective deliverers of healthcare in the country. They serve people who need it the most, and they are effective.

Let's say you have 3 kids. You are a single mom. And your kid has 104 fever, with probably strep, and you have to see a doctor before it gets worse. You go to a community health center, and you don't sit in a waiting room for 6 hours and have to file endless papers, like you do in a hospital. They take care of you right away. It makes it a lot easier for people to get healthcare, and it makes people want to get that healthcare that their kid might need.

And yet we are still hearing it: these great healthcare centers-- funding delayed, funding not coming, funding late. And they depend on this funding. They don't have a 6-month plan. They get funds from the Federal Government every 2 weeks. That pays the rent. That pays the salaries. That buys these supplies they need. You shut it off for a week, and the whole thing could face a real problem.

And so I went to Syracuse and Albany and demanded that, No. 1, this administration say they are no longer fooling around with the money that these community health centers need, that they get it right away; 2, that they give an explanation as to why it was cut off. What did they do wrong? Help people get healthcare that they need?

And, third, we Senate Democrats are demanding that the funding for these centers, overall, which runs out on March 14, because, as you know, Madam President, there was a bipartisan agreement to fund them fully for the year--Democrats and Republicans--and Donald Trump and Elon Musk said, even before they were in office--Musk is not in office; but before Trump was in office and Musk was working with him--they told the Republicans: Don't fund it. Don't fund this healthcare package.

And so now we are waiting until March 14, but that is a CHC, community healthcare center, cliff. If we don't renew that funding, many, many will close. Millions of people in America who are getting good healthcare--often preventive, often dealing with the immediate problems--will not get it at all.

So those are the three things: Stop fooling around with the funding; keep the flow going. No. 2, explain what anyone did. Why did they stop this funding? And, third, fund us so we don't go over the healthcare cliff.

This was bipartisan. My guess is you, Madam President, probably supported it. But when Donald Trump and Elon Musk said, ``Get that funding out; kill the deal,'' that is what Republicans did.

I made it clear in Syracuse and in Albany that this cannot happen. It is infuriating, and it has nothing to do with inefficiency.

Our hospitals, by the way--our big hospitals--like CHCs because that means their emergency rooms are not overflowed with people who could be taken care of in a much more effective, efficient way.

So I want to make a final point here. We hear from Donald Trump, JD Vance, Elon Musk, and DOGE that all they want to do is get rid of waste and inefficiency. When you look at community health centers, that is utter nonsense--utter, utter nonsense. There isn't very much inefficiency at them. No one ever said it was, that they were inefficient. In fact, most people who look at it say they are the most efficient providers at a lower cost, with less to do in healthcare, less paperwork, less all of this than other places.

So anyone who thinks that this DOGE experiment is simply getting rid of waste, baloney--baloney. We know what it is about: cut. DOGE is using a meat ax and cutting things that are vital to people.

Why? Why is all this happening? Because a careful look at inefficiency in government, even with a new administration that might want to look at it a little differently, would not just cut everything--not just cut everything.

And the bottom line is, it is all to cut $2.5 trillion, $2 trillion. We know what they are doing. And, unfortunately, too many of our Republican colleagues are going along. They are making these cuts so they can give the very wealthiest people in America a bigger tax break--take a working-class family that is getting healthcare and say: You don't get it anymore so Mr. Ultrabillionaire can get more tax breaks.

Come on. That is what is going on here, and it is across the board.

We saw what they did with AID. Well, one program AID is working on, as I understand it, is dealing with Ebola in the middle of Africa. Cut out the program? What if Ebola spreads around Africa and even here? Most people think that is a very good program.

Most people thought PEPFAR did a lot of good, but they cut it all. They didn't point out and say: This is inefficient, and that is inefficient. And cut it, but let's keep the good stuff. Uh-uh, cut it all. And we know why, once again. It is because the billionaires want even a bigger tax break.

So my visits to CHCs--the two CHCs I visited, Hometown in Schenectady and Syracuse healthcare in Syracuse--were very moving to me. I saw dedicated people who want to help people. I saw patients come in and get decent healthcare.

And yet it is on the chopping block. That is not what America voted for, Madam President. That is not what America voted for.

So I hope we will have a bipartisan coalition to fund our health centers, and I also hope that this administration, whether it comes to community health centers or so many other good programs across the board, will not freeze their funding, will not just say, ``We are cutting you,'' and will look at things carefully. There is inefficiency; use a scalpel. Get rid of it, but don't cut everything.

And, again, it seems the logic is very simple. They are really not interested in making the government more efficient. They just want to cut a certain huge amount of money. They don't care where it comes from--2.5 trillion, 2 trillion, 1 trillion--regardless of the consequences for working families. It is a shame. It is a shame.

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