Chuck Schumer

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, for months, Democrats have been clear: The full faith and credit of the United States cannot be held hostage. For months, we asked Speaker McCarthy and Republicans to present a plan--a real plan--to avoid default with no brinksmanship, no hostage- taking. But instead of presenting a viable plan, last week Speaker McCarthy and House Republicans passed the ``Default on America Act''--a hard- right ransom note--to the American people. Republicans' ``Default on America Act'' poses two terrible choices: either default on the debt or default on our country, with severe cuts to law enforcement, veterans, families, teachers, kids--even cancer research. Let me be clear: The Republicans' ``Default on America Act'' has no future in the Senate, and it does nothing to resolve the looming default crisis. If anything, MAGA Republicans have made default more likely by locking the House into an unacceptable and very extreme position and pulling us even further apart. According to one report by the Washington Post--and I commend everybody, Democrat and Republican to read it--but, according to this one report by the Washington Post, many hard-right House Members say their DOA bill represents the bare minimum they are willing to accept--the bare minimum. One Freedom Caucus Member said this bill is ``not a negotiating piece. It is the deal'' and further added that ``[Speaker McCarthy] cannot get to 218 with changes to this deal.'' Let me read that again, because it so perfectly captures the extremist thinking on the hard right, which we all know has tremendous leverage in the House. Speaker McCarthy ``cannot get to 218 with changes to this deal.'' Let me just read it again. ``Cannot get to 218 with changes to this deal.'' Respectfully, that is not negotiation. That is a ransom note. That is a hostage-taking tactic. It is another sign that Speaker McCarthy has surrendered to the extremists in his conference, who are ready to let the United States default unless they get everything--everything--they want. Senate Democrats cannot--and will not--allow Republicans' ``Default on America Act'' to become law, because the consequences of these cuts for American families would be severe. For generations, Congress has made spending and revenue decisions as part of the annual budget process. That is the appropriate place to debate, not here as a bargaining chip--a take-it-or-leave-it bargaining chip--for the hard right. So beginning this week, our Senate committees will do what House Republicans would not do: hold hearings to expose the damage that the cuts contained in the ``Default on America Act'' would cause to everyday American families. We will show the American people how the ``Default Act'' would rip away SNAP benefits for over a million recipients and eliminate Pell grants for tens of thousands of student loan borrowers. We will show the American people how the ``Default on America Act'' would raise taxes by over $500 billion over the next decade, crippling job creation, stifling economic growth, and squandering our future prosperity to the benefit of the Chinese Communist Party. And we will show the American people how the ``Default on America Act'' would cut critical funding to nearly all sectors of American life, leading to fewer jobs, higher costs, and leaving policemen, first responders, border patrol, and our brave veterans all hanging out to dry. We cannot move forward so long as hard-right MAGA Republicans, which we all know have tremendous, enormous leverage in the House, insist on their bill--a bill that is unacceptable to the Senate and the vast majority of the American people. Sadly, if the hard right continues running the show in the House, the dangers of a first-ever default will keep growing day by day. And as we expose this terrible bill for what it is, Senate Democrats' position remains the same: The only real solution is for both parties to pass a clean bill to avoid default, with no brinksmanship, no hostage-taking.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 66.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. SCHUMER. I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum calls for the cloture motions filed today, May 1, be waived.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 127.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 125.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. I understand there are two bills at the desk, and I ask for their first reading en bloc.

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I now ask for a second reading and I object to my own request, all en bloc.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, finally, I ask unanimous consent when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 10 a.m., Tuesday, May 2; that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed; that following the conclusion of morning business, the Senate proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the Farbiarz nomination; further, that the cloture motions filed during Wednesday's session ripen at 11:30 a.m. and that notwithstanding rule XXII, following the cloture vote on the Farbiarz nomination, the Senate vote on cloture on the Kirsch nomination; that following the cloture vote on the Kirsch nomination, the Senate recess subject to the call of the Chair to allow for the weekly caucus meetings and taking of the official photograph of the 118th Congress; further, that when the Senate reconvenes, all postcloture time on the Farbiarz nomination be considered expired and the Senate vote on confirmation of the nomination; that at 5 p.m., if cloture has been invoked on the Kirsch nomination, the Senate vote on confirmation of the nomination, followed by a vote on cloture on the Merchant nomination; finally, that if any nominations are confirmed, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

Mr. SCHUMER. For the information of the Senate, there will be two rollcall votes at 11:30 a.m., one rollcall vote following the photograph, and two rollcall votes at 5 p.m.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I enter a motion to reconsider.

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, let me explain. I switched my vote to no, not because I am not strongly for ERA--I wanted to bring it to the floor--but it will allow us to go back and cast a vote again in the future. This issue is too important, so we are not giving up. So I am moving to reconsider so I can bring it back up at a later time. I yield the floor.

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. SCHUMER. First, Mr. President, I would like to speak about the upcoming vote on the Equal Rights Amendment. As we all know, the story of American democracy has been a hard but inexorable march toward greater equality--equality regardless of race, equality regardless of social status, equality regardless of marital status, and equality regardless of sex. That march began at the founding of our country, when Abigail Adams reminded her husband to ``remember the ladies'' when drafting the Constitution, which fell, unfortunately, on deaf ears. It was a march that drew great numbers during the convention at Seneca Falls, NY, in 1848, and found expression in the abolitionist movement. That march took a bold step 100 years ago, when Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman drafted the original iteration of the Equal Rights Amendment and came before Congress for the first time. Let that great march toward equality take the next bold step today when the Senate votes to take up this bipartisan resolution on the ERA. This resolution is as necessary as it is timely. America can never hope to be a land of freedom and opportunity so long as half its population is treated like second-class citizens. So 100 years after the ERA first came to Congress, the work is not done. The fight has yet to be won. The march continues. And we have a chance to take this next step forward. The resolution is simple. It removes the arbitrary deadline for State ratification of the ERA that was imposed in the 1970s. Today, 38 States have ratified the ERA, as required by the Constitution. But because two States acted only recently, after the deadline set by Congress, the ERA remains unratified. Today's resolution says this deadline shall be in effect no more and, by doing so, recognizes that a sufficient number of States have now acted for the ERA to become the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. There is no good reason--none--for this Chamber, this Congress, and this Nation to bind itself to limitations set 50 years ago. The Constitution itself imposes no such barrier. By keeping this barrier in place--this 7-year barrier--all we are doing is needlessly obeying skewed rules set by politicians who are long gone and whose views ought not to rule the day any longer. In 2023, we should move forward to ratify the ERA with all due haste because, if you look at the terrible things happening to women's rights in this country, it is clear we must act. To the horror of hundreds of millions of American people, women in America have far fewer rights today than they did even a year ago. The protections of Roe v. Wade are gone, thanks to the MAGA majority on the Supreme Court. Over a dozen States have near-total abortion bans and millions of people have to travel hundreds of miles just to access reproductive care. That is sickening. That is why the Senate, today, should vote in favor of advancing this ERA resolution so we can bring our Nation one step closer to greater justice, greater equality, and a more perfect union. Again, let that great march toward equality take the next bold step today. I thank Senators Cardin and Murkowski, as our lead sponsors--it is a bipartisan bill--and all Members who have championed this resolution. I will proudly vote yes on this measure. Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023 Mr. President, now on default, yesterday, House Republicans passed, through the narrowest possible margin, a bill that amounts to a little more than a hard-right ransom note to the American people. Republicans' ``Default on America Act,'' DOA, cannot possibly be called a real ``plan'' for resolving the default crisis. The DOA reads more like a threat coming directly from the House Freedom Caucus: Either Republicans will force a default on the debt, or they will force steep cuts, highly unpopular with the American people, for law enforcement, veterans, families, teachers, and kids. Let's be perfectly clear. The Republicans' ``Default on America Act'' does nothing to actually resolve the looming debt crisis, and it has no hope of ever becoming law. If anything, the House's actions have made the likelihood of default more likely. It locks the House into an unacceptable position and pulls us even further apart. This shows the real solution is a clean, bipartisan plan to avoid default. It is the same one both parties have adopted many times before. That is the solution, not this ``Default on America Act'' that is going nowhere. If Republicans want to sell this terrible agenda to the American people, they should make their case in talks about the budget and appropriations, where it belongs, not by using the full faith and credit of the United States as a hostage. Let me say that again. The Republicans' ``Default on America Act'' does nothing to resolve the default crisis and, in fact, makes it only more likely. The ``Default on America Act,'' which the House just passed, is not a step forward but rather a costly step backward. Speaker McCarthy has claimed for months he wants to negotiate on avoiding default, but, according to reports, he is saying the opposite behind closed doors. Per at least one GOP House Member, Speaker McCarthy called this radical bill ``a floor, not a ceiling.'' That is what he told the hard- right Members whose votes he needed. The Speaker has reportedly promised his right flank that, moving forward, he will oppose any measure that doesn't have every single hard-right priority considered in this bill. In other words, to say this bill is ``a floor, not a ceiling'' is a threat to make the GOP bill even more extreme and avoid any alternative. If these reports are true--and Speaker McCarthy has made clear he has no intention of negotiating--the Speaker can't say his bill is ``a floor, not a ceiling'' and also claim he wants to negotiate. This is rather a hostage-taking tactic, and this ``Default on America Act'' is the ransom note forced on us by a hard-right, unrepresentative small group in the House of Representatives who have leverage because of the rules there. The GOP should realize that the American people will object to steep cuts to education, law enforcement, veterans' care, and border security that the DOA bill proposes. So for all the effort the GOP spent trying to pass their bill, unfortunately, we are not any further along to resolving the debt ceiling crisis, and, if anything, we have taken a costly step backward. It all brings us back to the place where we have been since the very beginning. The only real solution to avoiding a catastrophic default is the same solution that both parties have adopted in the past: Come together for a clean plan to avoid default, with no ransom notes, no ``floors,'' and no brinksmanship. Democrats will not allow this ``Default on America Act'' to become law. SAFE Banking Act Mr. President, finally on safe banking, yesterday, Senators from both sides of the aisle--I met with them repeatedly--reintroduced the SAFE Banking Act. SAFE Banking would ensure cannabis businesses that operate in States with legal cannabis have equal access to critical banking infrastructure. Clearly, this bill has provisions particularly aimed at helping minority business owners who are at a critical disadvantage in the cannabis industry. Right now, the norm for the cannabis businesses is to operate on all cash, and that is simply not fair. It exposes them to too many risks and stifles their opportunities to grow. Congress should be in the business of promoting entrepreneurs, promoting job growth, not holding these things back. I have worked very hard to make progress in SAFE Banking Plus, and the work will continue, but I have also made it clear that one of my top priorities to ensure SAFE Banking passes is that it contain critical criminal justice provisions--most importantly, expunging criminal records for certain low-level marijuana offenses. We have a moral responsibility in Congress to undo the terrible damage caused by the War on Drugs. It almost always has affected people of color. So I am going to work very hard with my colleagues to make sure criminal justice provisions are a part of SAFE Banking when it reaches the floor. I thank all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle. We have met numerous times, and I think everyone is working in good faith, including Senators Merkley, Daines, Brown, Sullivan, and Paul--a bipartisan group if there ever was one. I look forward to working with my colleagues--Democrat and Republican--to make progress on SAFE Banking Plus this Congress, and I hope this portends more bipartisan cooperation on future cannabis legislation. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I move to proceed to legislative session.