Rescissions

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Now, on Republican cuts, this week, Senate Republicans are set to push through the Senate a bill that betrays rural communities, harms global health, weakens America's standing abroad, and, worst of all, sets the stage for even more harmful cuts down the line.

The so-called rescissions package continues a destructive Republican pattern: Cut now and ask questions later. The same thing that is happening with FEMA and the National Weather Service is happening right here. Again, use that chain saw; cut, cut, cut--whether it is waste or whether it is sinew and bone--and then later, say: Oh, maybe we shouldn't have done that.

And do you know what? Our Republican Senators, most of them, know this is wrong, but they are so afraid of Donald Trump.

Yesterday, he threatened that any of them who voted against the full rescissions package that we have before us would face his wrath. What is going on here? Does anyone stand up to these horrible, horrible cuts that hurt the American people?

Republicans, in realtime, are cutting healthcare. They are cutting education. They are cutting aid for our veterans.

Veterans are not getting--ask them. The veterans know they are not getting the healthcare they used to.

And making things even worse, Donald Trump's tariffs are coming in at the worst possible time, and in a few short months, they are going to raise the cost of groceries. They are going to hurt small businesses and do untold damage to our economy.

And, now, this package suffocates public broadcast. Well, did they even know when they said they wanted to cut it--you know, Donald Trump doesn't seem to like it--how much it helps our rural communities? It is the only place they can rely on for local news, for weather reports. And farmers across rural America depend on public broadcast to get weather reports because there is no other way. Did they know that it guts international aid that ensures America's national security? Did they even think of the consequences, just because Donald Trump says he wants it cut? And everyone knows he doesn't know the details of any of this stuff.

The rescissions package is certainly troubling, but the pattern behind it is even worse. It sets the stage for even more party line devastating cuts in the future to healthcare, to education, anything Republicans decide they don't like, all on a party-line vote, all because of obeisance and fear of Donald Trump, not a conviction that he is doing the right thing. This is a dark omen moving forward.

Our Republican friends say they fight for the middle class. They say they fight for working people. Then they turn around and take investments away from middle class and rural America.

I urge them--urge them--not to proceed with this bill as written.

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