Continuing Appropriations and Extensions and Other Matters Act, 2026

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. 2882.

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Mr. SCHUMER. 2882.
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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, in a few minutes, the Senate is going to vote on the Republican partisan, status quo bill--partisan, status quo bill. The Republican CR was the wrong option for America a week ago. It remains the wrong option today because it does nothing--absolutely nothing--to solve the biggest healthcare crisis in America.

As we speak, tens of millions of Americans are getting letters in the mail informing them that their healthcare premiums are about to shoot up by an average of 114 percent. For a working-class family that needs healthcare, this is a huge increase. It is going to dramatically hurt them. And our Republican colleagues want to do nothing about it.

Four million people are about to lose coverage, and 24 million people will see their healthcare costs go up. And even if you don't have ACA, the insurers are going to raise rates on you because they are getting so much less money because of all the cuts my colleagues made.

This is a crisis.

Now I know the leader is going to show a poll that says that Democrats will be blamed for the shutdown. There are many more polls that show Republicans are blamed. The question in that poll is biased-- biased--in the New York Times, but it is biased.

That is true. I don't always believe the New York Times; you can be sure of that. Neither do you. OK?

But in any case, here is a poll from Morning Consult today: 75 percent of Americans support extending the tax premium credits; 63 percent of Republicans support it. Forty-five percent of voters say they will blame Republicans in Congress for a government shutdown, and only 32 percent blame Democrats.

It is natural that people understand that Donald Trump and the Republicans want a shutdown and Democrats do not.

We need to deal with this healthcare crisis now, not later, but the Republican bill fails to do that. I urge my Republican colleagues instead to join with us and work in good faith to keep the government open, keep costs down.

This is a totally partisan bill. Not once were we approached about what our input should be. When I was majority leader, 13 different times, we passed CRs. Why? Because every single one of those 13 times we negotiated with Republicans to keep the government open. We still want to have those negotiations today.

Democrats remain ready to get to work to negotiate a bipartisan agreement--a truly bipartisan agreement--to keep the government open, but we need to fix our healthcare system now. We need to stop premiums from going up dramatically. We need to be on the side of the American people because they are on our side in terms of getting this healthcare crisis fixed--one created by the so-called Big Beautiful Bill, which they now want to change the name of because they know it is so unpopular. In fact, Republican leaders are saying ``Don't talk about healthcare'' because they know that we are on their side and Republicans are not.

The issue can't wait. It must be dealt with now, not November, when it will be too late. The Republican CR is silent on healthcare and the wrong option for the country. It is as simple as that.

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