Budget Reconciliation

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, now, on reconciliation, a few hours ago, while most Americans were fast asleep, House Republicans rammed through their so-called Big Beautiful Bill through the House of Representatives, in the dead of night, in the hopes that nobody would notice.

House Republicans took a bill that was already rotten to the core and made it even worse to appease the most radical factions of their party. It will bring deeper, harder, and even faster pain to the American people.

It seems the hard right over there wanted even quicker pain. It is truly jarring to watch House Republicans cheer and pat each other on the back while bond markets spiral and working families are left to worry about how they will make ends meet.

So this morning, let's take a look at a few ways this bill has gotten even worse as it has reached final passage. We will surely learn more in the coming days, but let me share a few changes Republicans made that Americans deserve to hear.

First, this bill was already the largest cut in Medicaid in American history, but now these cuts have been rushed forward and will happen as soon as next year. Moving up the timeline now means that hospitals, particularly rural hospitals, have even less time to prepare and increases the chance that they will close and that hundreds in each county will lose their jobs.

Up to 14 million Americans are in danger of losing their health insurance. This bill will shut down rural hospitals, community health centers, urgent care clinics, and more. But while hospital beds are closing, Republicans are prioritizing a repeal on tanning bed taxes.

And, of course, at the last minute, the anti-choice radicals snuck in a new provision, penalizing enrollees in private plans on ACA exchanges covering reproductive care. Defunding Planned Parenthood wasn't enough. The radicals got their pitchforks and added a provision to effectively ban every insurance premium on every ACA exchange for covering abortion.

This is catastrophic and even increases the anti-choice provisions in the bill by a dramatic amount. It will mean that nearly one in seven Americans who has been insured through ACA since 2014 will be subject to this change.

And while our communities get sicker, our kids get hungry. Republicans weren't satisfied with simply making 4 million kids go hungry. They decided they needed to move up the timeline. Cuts to SNAP will take effect as soon as next year. That makes it even harder for food pantries to adapt--more chaos, more hunger, and more closures among our food pantries and kitchens that serve the hungry.

Widespread hunger is now on the fast track. Republicans seem to be saying that the average person who needs food gets only $5 a day. A dozen eggs cost more than $5 a day.

That is the price Republicans accept so they can cut taxes on the wealthy.

Republicans are stealing from hungry kids, stealing from low-income families to give trillions in tax giveaways to the wealthy.

This is not beautiful. It is ugly. It is revolting.

As the bill proceeds, perhaps the most dramatic change that occurred overnight is the surrender of America's clean energy future to China. Republicans are condemning Americans to higher energy costs and killing hundreds of thousands--even millions--of good-paying jobs.

Last night, the Republicans did something else too. They added a clean job kill switch. At the very last minute, Republicans added a provision that says any project that doesn't break ground within 60 days of this passage will lose the entire tax credit.

That is getting rid of the tax credit. No project can start in 60 days. That is not how it works. They know that. They know that the clean energy tax credits are popular. They know that the clean energy tax credits will reduce costs for American families.

So instead of saying, ``Kill it outright,'' they say, ``You must start within 60 days.'' That is saying, ``Kill it outright.'' Everyone knows that, and I saw that some of the hard-right people from the oil patch States were gloating--gloating--that clean energy is gone. It is one of the most devastating things added at the last minute in this bill, snuck in, in the dark of night.

We in the Senate--and I hope our Republican colleagues will join us in this--are going to fight this every step of the way. Much of the clean energy industry will be dead. As I said, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of jobs will be lost, and China, 10 years from now, will be dictating what happens in our energy markets to our children.

To make matters even worse, of course, the bill also raises taxes on some projects that are underway. Donald Trump says he wants America to dominate energy, and then he does this--taxing energy projects, raising costs for families?

Nope. Donald Trump, what you are doing is absolutely stupid and counterproductive. You don't even know what you are doing. You just think: Oh, clean energy, let's just get rid of it. We will rely on oil, gas, and coal.

Well, there ain't enough oil, gas, and coal to fuel the world, and it is more expensive to do it, Donald Trump. What the heck are you doing?

This is an American energy kill switch. Solar jobs will vanish. Wind jobs will vanish. Manufacturing jobs will go to China, just the opposite of what the President says he wants. And people's electric bills will go up.

So America, when your electric bill starts going up, talk to Donald Trump, talk to the Republicans in the House, and please talk to the Republicans in the Senate and tell them not to move forward on this folly.

Republicans call their bill a tax break, but, in reality, it is a tax hike and a job killer, except for China, where it is a job creator. China wins; America loses.

In the coming days, Americans will take a look at the Republicans' Big Beautiful Bill and discover it gets uglier and uglier the closer they look.

The bill, hopefully, has a doomed future in the Senate. Senate Democrats will let hell freeze over and fight this in every way that we can.

Donald Trump told House Republicans that voting no on his bill will be the ultimate betrayal, but the real betrayal this morning was the Republicans voting yes--the betrayal of the American people--because there is nothing beautiful about the biggest cuts to Medicaid in American history, nothing beautiful about cutting SNAP benefits so children go hungry and can't learn or have productive lives, nothing beautiful about cutting SNAP benefits by over $200 billion.

Senate Democrats will oppose this morally bankrupt bill with every fiber in our being--every fiber.

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