Chuck Schumer

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 81, S. 693.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. I ask that further reading be waived.

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I ask that the Chair lay before the Senate the message to accompany S. 1605.

Mr. SCHUMER. I ask unanimous consent that the reading of the names be dispensed with.

Mr. SCHUMER. I have an amendment No. 4881 to amendment No. 4880, which is at the desk.

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays on the motion to concur with an amendment.

Mr. SCHUMER. I ask that further reading be dispensed with.

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I move to concur in the House amendment with an amendment No. 4880, which is at the desk.

Mr. SCHUMER. I move to concur in the House amendment. Cloture Motion I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. SCHUMER. I move to refer the House message to the Armed Services Committee with instructions to report back forthwith with an amendment No. 4882.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, Build Back Better: So, in the first few days of December, we have successfully avoided a government shutdown. We have cleared the path, hopefully, for addressing the debt limit; and, as I mentioned, I am optimistic that the NDAA will soon be settled. None of these are easy accomplishments, but we are clearing the path for Democrats to turn to our biggest domestic priority of the year: passing President Biden's Build Back Better Act before Christmas. Later today, four Senate committees will release the final texts of their portions of Build Back Better, along with CBO scores for each, as required by the reconciliation process. Those four committees are Commerce, Small Business, Banking and Housing, and Veterans' Affairs. In the meantime, I continue to hold daily conversations with my Democratic colleagues, with the White House, with the Speaker, and House colleagues. We continue to make good progress, and we are still on track to vote on a final product before Christmas. The sooner we can pass Build Back Better, the better off American families will be as we start the new year. This bill has always been about a simple goal: cutting costs for working and middle-class families. People are complaining about higher costs. They are right to do that. This bill actually lowers costs in many different areas and will help families who are trying to make ends meet and stretch those dollars. Let me give you some examples. Families are still struggling to pull themselves out of a once-in-a- century economic crisis brought about by COVID. They want to pay less for things like healthcare, prescription drugs, childcare--some of the biggest costs average middle-income and working families have. They want us to find ways to make that happen, and that is exactly what Build Back Better does. America, if you want lower costs, tell your Senators to vote for Build Back Better. If we invest in American families, then we make it easier for them to work, to be productive, to flourish in society, and that makes our country stronger and lowers costs in the long term. One of the great problems, we are told, is a shortage of workers. One of the greatest reasons for the shortage of workers is the lack of good childcare. People can't go to work if they have to look after their kids. And in this post-COVID era, a lot of the patterns that used to happen don't happen anymore. Making childcare affordable will help bring people back to work, get our economy humming along again, and deal with some of the bottlenecks in certain areas, from certain industries, which is creating inflation. Helping families afford childcare, of course, saves parents money, but it goes a long way to alleviating our labor shortage. If parents don't have to worry about how they will keep their kids safe during the day, they will have greater flexibility to reenter the workforce and increase the country's output. That lowers inflation. In the long term, everyone wins--kids, parents, employers, and the entire economy. This single investment alone is enough reason to keep pushing Build Back Better, but there are so many. One of the greatest costs we face is prescription drug costs. That is what families complain about above all. This bill goes a long way to making prescription drugs cost less. Another great cost people are complaining about is the rising cost of housing. This bill puts more money into housing--into both rehabilitating housing that has deteriorated and putting them back into the marketplace in a real way and into creating new housing. It will reduce the dramatic increase in housing costs. So you want to talk about inflation, you want to talk about people having to pay more, this bill is an antidote in so many areas. I have mentioned childcare, healthcare, and housing, just to name a few, but there are many others as well. So we are going to keep working in getting this bill done. It is so important to working families and to America. To working families: less expenses, easier to make that dollar stretch when we sit down Friday night after dinner and say, ``How are we going to pay the bills this week?'' To America: relieving bottlenecks and making sure that our economy hums along at a rapid rate, where people are getting good wages, but the bottlenecks caused often by COVID are reduced.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 154, S. 2293.

Mr. SCHUMER. I ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported substitute amendment be agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered laid and made upon the table.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. For information of Senators, the vote on the motion to concur will be at approximately 12:30 p.m.

Mr. SCHUMER. Finally, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, December 9; 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 upon the conclusion of morning business, the Senate resume consideration of the House message to accompany S. 610; further, that if cloture is invoked on the motion to concur in the House message to accompany S. 610, that it be as if invoked at 1 a.m., Thursday, December 9; finally, that all time during adjournment, recess, morning business, and leader remarks count postcloture.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, at the beginning of December, I said the Senate had a lot of hard work to do in order to address several critical priorities before the end of the year. When the month began, America knew we had to avoid a government shutdown; we had to approve our annual Defense bill; we had to preserve the full faith and credit of the United States; take action on Build Back Better before Christmas, as well as deal with voting rights. It is now December 8, and the Senate is making very good progress on all of these priorities. It was a big, big agenda, and we are clearly not through with it, but we are making good progress. There is clearly light at the end of the tunnel on the debt ceiling and the Defense bill based on the agreement Leader McConnell and I came to and the House's action last night. Let me go over those details. Last night, the House of Representatives sent us two important pieces of legislation. One of them is a compromise version of our annual Defense bill, which I expect will earn bipartisan support in this Chamber in the coming days. I want to thank my colleagues, especially Senator Reed, Ranking Member Inhofe, and all my colleagues, who worked to shape this legislation to help us make sure we pass a bipartisan Defense bill this year, as we have done for decades. The second bill they sent us will enable the Chamber to swiftly address the debt limit, sparing our country from the calamity--and a calamity it would have been--of a first-ever default on our national debt. This fast-tracked process was included in a bill that will also provide critical protections for Medicare funding, preventing slashes in that very important funding to so many seniors, and waive the pay-go rule to avoid harmful cuts. Last night, I took the first procedural step to advance this legislation, setting up a cloture vote to take place as soon as Thursday. Once our proposal is approved by the Senate, we will be able to address the debt limit in this Chamber with a simple majority vote, which is exactly what Democrats have been seeking for months and what I have been asking for at this podium time after time, after time. I want to thank the Republican leader for his help in working with us to find a responsible path that avoids partisan brinksmanship. Democrats have always said that the Senate should be able to raise the debt limit without resorting to a convoluted, lengthy, and risky reconciliation process, and under our plan, we won't have to do that. Democrats have also said repeatedly that the responsible thing to do is to raise the debt ceiling. Both Democrats and Republicans voted for the spending increase. We have said repeatedly that we are ready to shoulder this burden even if our Republican colleagues are not going to be able to. It now looks like we will be able to do that--to have 50 Democrats vote responsibly and do what is good for the Nation, avoiding catastrophe by raising the debt ceiling to pay the debts we have already incurred, just like any household must do. This agreement we have secured is the responsible path forward. No gamesmanship on the debt limit means no default on our sovereign debt and the calamity--the calamity--that it would cause. Again, I thank my Republican colleagues and Leader McConnell. We have had fruitful, honest, and good discussions over the last several weeks to come up with this proposal. We are not over the finish line yet, but I want to thank all of my colleagues for working in good faith to move forward on this responsibility that must be addressed in the coming days. Soon, we will be able to cross another major item off our December to-do list. And we have more to roll up our sleeves and get working on. They are so important.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations: All nominations placed on the Secretary's desk in the Coast Guard; that the nominations be confirmed en bloc; that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate; that no further motions be in order to any of the nominations; and the President be immediately notified of the Senate's actions.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Chair lay before the Senate the message to accompany S. 610.

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 Senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations en bloc: Calendar No. 583, No. 584; that the Senate vote on the nominations en bloc without intervening action or debate; that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate; that any statements related to the nominations be printed in the Record; that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action; and that the Senate resume legislative session.

Mr. SCHUMER

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

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum calls for the cloture motions filed today, December 7, be waived.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 576.

Mr. SCHUMER

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