Chuck Schumer

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, for the information of all Senators, we expect the vote on the motion to discharge to occur around 5:40 p.m. I yield the floor to my friend from Louisiana.

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, pursuant to S. Res. 27, the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs being tied on the question of reporting, I move to discharge the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs from further consideration of the nomination of Rohit Chopra, of the District of Columbia, to be Director, Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection for a term of five years.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, yesterday, Speaker Pelosi and I put in motion the path to pass a continuing resolution that in one fell swoop would accomplish four very important things. It would keep the government open through December 3 of this year and avoid a needless and dangerous shutdown. It would provide emergency funding to help resettle Afghan evacuees; it would approve tens of billions of dollars in disaster aid funding; and it will suspend the debt ceiling until December of 2022, commensurate with the time necessary to cover the debt of the bipartisan $908 billion emergency COVID-relief bill passed at the end of last year. Now, today, I want to spend some time focusing on the last of these items, addressing the debt limit to avoid a first-ever default in American history. Throughout modern history, addressing the debt ceiling has consistently been done on a bipartisan basis. Let me repeat that. Throughout modern history, addressing the debt ceiling has consistently been done on a bipartisan basis. Since 1960, the debt ceiling has been raised approximately 80 times under both Republican and Democratic administrations and under both unified and divided government. So much for the argument by Leader McConnell that when all three branches are controlled by one party, the debt ceiling ought to be their exclusive domain. That is not what history has shown, and that is not what happened actually in 2017 when Donald Trump was President, McConnell was majority leader, and McCarthy was Republican Speaker--I believe it was McCarthy back then--but the debt ceiling was renewed bipartisan. To do otherwise, to not do the debt ceiling in a bipartisan way, has been considered unthinkable because the consequences for the economy, for the American people, and for our standing on the world stage would be too severe. Senate Republicans and the Republican leader, however, are again engaging in fantastical feats of sophistry to justify why this time is somehow different. We know it is not. We all know the truth. Democrats and Republicans both had a hand in approving the spending we now must pay. Look, we know the Republican justification for forcing a default is totally dishonest, plain and simple. Don't ask me; just listen to the Wall Street Journal. Here is what it said: Congress would still need to raise the debt limit this fall even if no new major spending programs were enacted. This idea that they don't want to raise the debt ceiling to deal with future spending is just totally false. Ask the Wall Street Journal. The fact is, our continuing resolution would suspend the debt limit through December of 2022, an amount of time commensurate with the debt incurred as a result of passing the bipartisan $908 billion emergency COVID relief legislation in December of last year. Remember, that legislation was drafted by Republicans, voted for by Republicans, and put on the floor by Leader McConnell, who voted for it, and signed by a Republican President. Democrats worked with our colleagues to pass this bill because it was the right thing to do for our families, our small businesses, and suffering communities. Our CR is now carefully tailored--carefully tailored--to account for this debt. This is as reasonable as it gets. So for Republicans to suddenly throw their hands in the air and abscond from their responsibility to pay debt that they proudly supported is nothing short of a dine-and-dash of historic proportions. Republicans racked trillions of dollars of debt under President Trump and are demanding American families foot the bill. What will this do? It could stop payments to Social Security recipients. It could stop payments to veterans. It could raise interest rates, making a mortgage or car loan more expensive. It could cause local governments to pay more in interest, and that might mean increased taxes for people. This is playing with fire. Playing games with the debt ceiling is playing with fire and putting it on the backs of the American people. Of course, there is a very quick and easy way to make sure we avoid all of this from becoming even a possibility. Republicans simply don't have to vote to force a default. It is that simple. Democrats will do the right thing and the responsible thing when the continuing resolution comes for a vote on the floor. We will see who among the Republican conference will do likewise.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I understand there is a bill at the desk that is due for a second reading.

Mr. SCHUMER. In order to place the bill on the calendar under the provisions of rule XIV, I would object to further proceeding.

Mr. SCHUMER

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

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 241.

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 executive session to consider Calendar No. 240.

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 Senate proceed to legislative session for a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. SCHUMER

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

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 376, submitted earlier today.

Mr. SCHUMER. I ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that 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 move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 169.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to legislative session and be in a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. SCHUMER

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

Mr. SCHUMER

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

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, the Senate begins this week with a lot to accomplish in very little time. This week, and in weeks to come, Senate Democrats will continue our work to pass historic legislation to strengthen our economy and renew America's middle class for the 21st century. Very soon, we will also take up a continuing resolution to avoid a needless government shutdown and provide emergency funding necessary to settle Afghan refugees and those devastated by this summer's natural disasters. We must also work on a bipartisan basis to extend the debt ceiling to preserve the very important and cherished full faith and credit of the United States. The Senate will also consider recently introduced voting rights legislation and advancing President Biden's nominees to the judiciary and to his administration. So the next few weeks will be critical weeks for the Senate. Members should be prepared for the possibility of working late nights and into the weekend. On the nominations front, we will begin the week by confirming Ms. Veronica Rossman of Colorado to serve on the Tenth Circuit. Ms. Rossman has spent the majority of her career in public service, representing criminal defendants who cannot afford counsel oftentimes. She would be one of very few Federal public defenders on the entire Federal bench, bringing both personal and professional diversity to our courts at a time when we need to strengthen the public's trust in the Federal judiciary. In addition to Ms. Rossman's confirmation, Senate Democrats are working to confirm many other nominees for a critical number of Agencies, including the Departments of Defense, State, and Treasury. Now, unfortunately, some of our Republican colleagues have chosen to play cheap political games and stonewall the confirmation of these uncontroversial but essential nominees. Let's be clear. By blocking these perfectly qualified public servants, my Republican colleagues are deliberately hindering our government's ability to protect our country and to work with our allies abroad. These nominees should be the work of a few hours at most. Many of them have been reported out of committee with bipartisan support and, under normal circumstances, would be confirmed without any trouble. And so while my Republican colleagues won't be able to stop these nominees from reaching final confirmation, their stonewalling will drag out what would normally be a routine and easy process. The few obstructionists on the Republican side who are leading this charge are deliberately derailing the confirmation of these important nominees in an all-out effort to gain the support of hard-right elements of their party, and in the process--the nasty political process they are engaged in--they are making Americans less safe at home and abroad. They should stop immediately, and the Republican leader should admonish them. Now, on the legislative front, Democrats continue to make good progress toward enacting our Build Back Better agenda into law. Last week, the House completed their markups--the House committees completed their markups on the legislative text that underpins Democrats' reconciliation bill. Here in the Senate, our caucus held a long and productive discussion last week about the substance of our bill. We will continue these discussions as the week progresses. Now, no one expected that it would be easy to pass legislation to transform the American economy and provide the biggest tax cut for the middle class in a generation. But no one in this body was elected to do only the easy stuff. We have a lot of hard work to do, and we are going to keep at it until we get the job done. Now, I just want to say something about the news we received last night about the Senate Parliamentarian. Last night's ruling was extremely disappointing. It saddened me. It frustrated me. It angered me. But make no mistake. The fight continues. Senate Democrats have prepared alternative proposals and will be holding additional meetings with the Senate Parliamentarian in the coming days. I have been working closely with my colleagues in the Senate, including Judiciary Chairman Durbin, Senators Padilla, Menendez, Lujan, and Cortez Masto, and we will continue our fight to find the best option available to provide immigrants with the chance at one day obtaining lawful residence here in America. The last year and a half have shown how vital our immigrants have been to keeping our economy going during a time of crisis. So many risked their lives on the frontline of this pandemic but remain excluded from the very same benefits that have kept millions of others secure during these hard times. We are short of workers from one end of America to the other. One of the reasons, the Trump administration dramatically cut back on immigrants in this country. We need them. We need them in our labor force. We need them to continue American vitality. We need them because they are part of the American Dream. It is estimated in my city by some that one-third of the healthcare workers at the height of COVID who risked their lives for us were immigrants. Having a strong law that helps our immigrants is vital. The American people understand that fixing our broken immigration system is a moral imperative and an economic imperative. Immigration reform has been one of the most important causes of my time in the Senate, and I will not stop fighting to achieve it. Finally, on addressing the debt limit, on debt limit the Republicans are doing a dine-and-dash of historic proportions that hurts the American people and hurts our country. That hurts the American people and hurts our country. In the immediate future, both parties will have to come together to allow the Federal Government to continue its most important responsibility: paying the bills and making good on our outstanding obligations. A few minutes ago, I joined with Speaker Pelosi in announcing that the continuing resolution that we will take up to avoid a government shutdown will also include a suspension of the debt limit through December 2022, allowing us to meet our obligations and preserve the full faith and credit of these United States of America. Suspending the debt limit through December of 2022 provides an amount of time commensurate with the debt that was incurred as a result of the $908 billion COVID emergency relief bill last year. That was a bill that was passed when Donald Trump was President and Senator McConnell was the majority leader of the Senate. It was passed under Republican leadership. That is the debt we are paying in this bill. The legislation that funded this $908 billion in COVID relief was supported by more than 40 Republicans and signed into law by President Trump. So anyone who says this is Democratic debt is not talking fact; they are talking fiction. Both sides--both sides--have a responsibility to pay for the debt that we have already incurred. It has always been done in a bipartisan way. Unfortunately, last week, Leader McConnell announced that the Senate Republicans are inclined to deliberately turn their backs on their obligations. When asked if Republicans would block an extension of the debt limit, Leader McConnell, amazingly and cravenly, said that ``Republicans are united in opposition to raising the debt ceiling.'' Shame. This is the same Leader McConnell who urged Democrats and Republicans to support raising the debt ceiling when Donald Trump was President and he was majority leader. He always comes up with some sophistry as to why it is different, but everyone knows it is not different. In fact, Democrats supported three times raising the debt ceiling when Trump was President, and if my recollection is right, at least one of those times was when the House, the Senate, and the Presidency were controlled by Republicans. Should Republicans careen our country toward a default, our country could actually be plunged into recession--laying off millions, making it harder for people to pay for the food on the table and their mortgages and their rent. Shame, shame on the Republican leader. As Secretary Yellen put it just days ago, failure to raise the debt limit would have ``absolutely catastrophic economic consequences . . . [and] would precipitate a financial crisis.'' A default would risk sending interest rates sky high across the board, hurting consumers, small businesses, and our country's ability to borrow in the future. Our economy, still fresh off the trauma of the COVID crisis, could slip back into recession and undo everything we have done to help struggling Americans pick themselves back up. Now, many on the other side, including the Republican leader himself, are trying to justify their reckless position with deeply misleading talking points. They have argued over and over again that they refuse to work with Democrats because they oppose our forthcoming legislative agenda. Of course, what they don't say is that these two issues have nothing to do with each other. The forthcoming legislative agenda has not incurred any debt--a nickel of debt--in the United States. It was the previous agenda of President Trump and the Republican Senate and Republicans in the House that created this debt. Republicans ignore the analysis like the one done by the Washington Post, which observed that ``roughly 97 percent of the current U.S. cumulative debt was accrued before Biden took office.'' Indeed, none other than the Wall Street Journal made this even clearer. ``Raising the debt limit wouldn't facilitate future spending,'' it said, ``and Congress would still need to raise the debt limit this fall even if no new major spending programs are enacted.'' I want to repeat that not just for Leader McConnell but for my Republican colleagues. Hopefully there are some who will rise to their responsibility and abandon this crass, craven, political move, which would do such harm to the United States, that the Republican leader has proffered. So I will read it again. The Wall Street Journal said, ``Raising the debt limit wouldn't facilitate future spending'' and went on to say that ``Congress would still need to raise the debt limit this fall even if no new major spending programs are enacted.'' So the bottom line is simple. Let me repeat. What Republicans are doing is nothing short of a dine-and-dash of historic proportions. They want working-class American families to foot the bill for their irresponsibility, and as a consequence of their callous political games, it will be veterans and Social Security payment recipients who suffer most. This isn't just another partisan fight. This isn't who can be more macho. This is about the country. All too often, the press--they make it into macho, macho. That is wrong. What one party is doing here, everyone knows, is deliberately wrong--at least the Republican leader and all those who choose to follow him--with serious consequences for the people. It is not just another partisan fight; it is about avoiding a crisis that would undo all the progress our country has made to heal itself of the COVID crisis. Democrats are going to do the responsible thing and vote to extend the debt limit when the time comes. We will see which of our Republican colleagues on the other side will have the strength and the courage to follow suit. I yield the floor.

Mr. SCHUMER

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

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I understand there is a bill at the desk, and I ask for its first reading.

Mr. SCHUMER. I now ask for a second reading, and in order to place the bill on the calendar under the provisions of rule XIV, I object to my own request.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, finally, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum calls for the cloture motions filed today, September 20, be waived.

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

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10:30 a.m., Tuesday, September 21; 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 proceed to executive session and resume consideration of the Strickland nomination; further, that the Senate recess following the cloture vote on the Strickland nomination until 2:15 p.m. to allow for the weekly caucus meetings; that if cloture is invoked, all post-cloture time expire at 2:30 p.m.; 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.