Chuck Schumer

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, first, let me thank all of my colleagues for their kind words during my time isolating due to COVID last week. As you can see, I have made a full recovery after experiencing only mild symptoms, thank God. COVID has done incalculable damage to scores of American families, but because I was fortunate enough to be vaccinated and double boosted, my case was not as bad as it could have been. I urge all Americans who have not been vaccinated yet to talk to their doctors and get the vaccine, if possible, and then get boosted when the time is right. Speaking from personal experience, it makes all the difference in the world.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 989.

Mr. SCHUMER

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

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Finally, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum calls for the cloture motions filed today, July 18, be waived.

Mr. SCHUMER. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. SCHUMER

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

Mr. SCHUMER

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

Mr. SCHUMER

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

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. 3157, and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I further ask that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions be discharged from further consideration and the Senate now proceed to S. Res. 676.

Mr. SCHUMER. I know of no further debate on the resolution.

Mr. SCHUMER. I ask unanimous consent that the preamble be agreed to and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 699, submitted earlier today.

Mr. SCHUMER. I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 369, S. 3846.

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed, and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 700, submitted earlier today.

Mr. SCHUMER. I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 975.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, as we approach the conclusion of a truly consequential work period, the Senate this morning will take the next major step toward accomplishing something that hasn't been done in decades, passing a strong gun safety bill. The bill can be described simply in three adjectives: common sense, bipartisan, lifesaving. And if Republicans work with us, we could very well finish the job in its entirety before the day is done. Later this morning, the Senate will vote to invoke cloture on the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, and I expect that vote to have robust bipartisan support, just as we saw earlier this week. We are not going to leave until we pass this bill. After this morning's vote, it is my intention to work with Republican colleagues to reach an agreement to secure a vote on final passage before the day is out. As the author of the Brady bill nearly 30 years ago, the last legislative effort to fight gun violence, I am so pleased that we are at last on the precipice of taking action once again. It has been a long time, but this breakthrough is welcome. So I urge my Republican colleagues, let's get this bill passed and pass it today. Let's pass it so we can send it to the House; they can send it to the White House; and the President can sign it. Americans have waited long enough. Let us finish our job today. As we take the final steps in this process, few could have anticipated we would reach this point just a few weeks ago. The morning after the tragedy in Uvalde, the U.S. Senate faced a choice: We could surrender to gridlock, and we could swiftly vote on a bill with provisions many of us would have wanted, but because of rigid opposition from the other side had no hope of passing the Chamber--it would have failed--or we could choose to try and forge a bipartisan path forward to pass a real bill, as difficult as that may have seemed to many. Over the past 4 weeks, we chose to try and get something done. Immediately after Uvalde, I spoke with Senator Murphy, who asked me to give negotiators time and space to do their work. With his deep experience in this area, he believed that given the opportunity, maybe, maybe, maybe these talks could succeed; although, of course, there was no guarantee. I was happy to agree because I knew that even if there was a chance to get something positive and tangible done on gun safety, it was worth the effort. So I told Senator Murphy I would give him the space he needed. That quickly became the consensus of our caucus and the consensus of many of our gun safety advocates who pressed us to secure real progress. Senator Murphy and I called them the day after Uvalde, and they agreed, get something done, even if it wouldn't be everything we would all want. We were all on the same page. Instead of voting on a bill that would fail, we would try and get something real passed in the Senate. In the end, it was the right decision because before long we had a bipartisan guns framework. A week later, we had legislative text. A few days ago, that bill came before the Senate with strong bipartisan votes. And today--today--we can take final steps to passing the first major gun safety bill in nearly 30 years. As I said, this is not a cure-all for all the ways gun violence affects our Nation, but it is a long overdue step in the right direction. It is significant; it is going to save lives; and it is my intention to get it done as soon as we can. I want to thank all of my Democratic and Republican colleagues for working together to reach this point, and I want to thank the leaders of the effort: Senators Murphy and Sinema, Senators Cornyn and Tillis, as well as all of our colleagues on the bipartisan working group, all of our chairs and Members who contributed their expertise and their leadership in shaping the bill. I also want to thank every single survivor of gun violence, every family who has spoken up, every advocate who has organized, and every voter and concerned citizen who has pushed this body to take action for so many years. Even with the holes in their heart, the lost loved ones through needless, cruel gun violence, so many advocates persisted and persisted and persisted. And without them keeping that candle burning, even in the darkest of moments, we wouldn't have gotten this done. I salute them. I thank them. America thanks them. And I say to all of them, all the advocates who worked so hard and so long on this, very soon your efforts will bear real fruit. We are going to keep going until we finish the job. So I urge my colleagues to reach an agreement with us to do precisely that.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, first, let me thank Senator Murphy for his amazing work and that powerful speech. He did a great, great job, as did many others. Now, tonight, the U.S. Senate is doing something many believed was impossible even a few weeks ago: We are passing the first significant gun safety bill in nearly 30 years. The gun safety bill we are passing tonight can be described with three adjectives: bipartisan, commonsense, lifesaving. As the author of the Brady bill in 1994--the last legislative effort to fight gun violence in Congress--I am pleased that this moment has finally come and that we are finally taking meaningful action to keep our communities safe. I hope it paves the way for future action on guns in Congress and at all levels of government. As I said, this is not a cure-all for all the ways gun violence affects our Nation, but it is a long-overdue step in the right direction. Passing this gun safety bill is truly significant, and it is going to save lives. It was so, so significant that we let the process work instead of just having one vote, which would divide us and not accomplish anything. And I hope that portends doing it again on guns and on other issues as well. I want to thank my colleagues for their incredible work. This was a great moment here on a very, very difficult issue. I want to thank Senators Murphy and Sinema; Senators Cornyn and Tillis, who showed amazing courage; and all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for working together to break this logjam. The American people have waited long enough. Let's finally take action to pass this lifesaving gun safety bill. Amendment Withdrawn Now, Madam President, I withdraw amendment No. 5100.

Mr. SCHUMER. I know of no further debate on the motion to concur with an amendment.