Chuck Schumer

Mr. SCHUMER

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

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum calls for cloture motions filed today, Thursday, July 15, be waived.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 246.

Mr. SCHUMER

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

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, every Senator, from every State, has witnessed the hollowing out of the middle class over the past few decades. Globalization and technology have changed the way that Americans work and compete. Productivity increased, but wages for the bottom 70 percent stagnated in this century, in this 20 years. Income equality spiked as wealth agglomerated to the top. The financial crisis and the COVID pandemic heaped additional hardship on middle-class families that were already falling behind. The changes in the world--the swirling changes, economic and social--have made it harder to stay in the middle class and have made it harder to get to the middle class. We Democrats feel an obligation to make it easier for those in the middle class to enjoy that middle-class life and stay there and for those struggling to get into the middle class to have those ladders so they can climb up to get there. These are exciting and fundamental times to be here in the Senate. In short, we have a lot to do to restore the fundamental American promise of opportunity and economic mobility--the faith that, through hard work, any American can build a better life for themselves, their families, their children, and then pass even greater opportunity on to their children. That is the American dream. It has been fading, and that has allowed demagoguery and nastiness and divisiveness to become too great a part of our politics. We want to restore that sunny optimism that Americans have always had, and that is why we are so intent on moving forward this month. The idea that Americans can build a better life for themselves and pass greater opportunity to their children is at the heart of what Democrats are trying to achieve this year through the American Jobs and Families Plan, helping middle-class families stay in the middle class and breathe easier and helping poorer Americans climb that ladder to get there. And nothing--nothing--will do more to advance that goal than the bill we are working on this year. The budget resolution agreed to by Democrats on the Budget Committee this week is the first step down a long road toward enacting a transformational change in our economy. It will allow us to pass the most significant legislation to expand support for American families since the era of the New Deal and the Great Society. If not quite Rooseveltian in scope, it is certainly near Rooseveltian. It is dramatic change to help average families do better. The best way to understand the emerging legislation is in three broad categories: jobs, which will come through major infrastructure investments; families; and climate. We are going to create thousands upon thousands of good-paying jobs by investing in infrastructure and the training and apprenticeships that will help more Americans, including many of those who have been left out, get those jobs. We are going to expand and strengthen the programs that support American families and introduce new ones, like paid family leave and a robust expansion of Medicaid to cover vision, dental, and hearing. I salute Senator Sanders for putting it on the map and now making it a real possibility to happen. And we are going to act on climate in a bold and comprehensive way, to reduce emissions, make our infrastructure more resilient, and create the green jobs of the future to meet the President's goals of an 80- percent reduction in dirty carbon that goes into energy production and a 50-percent overall reduction in the carbon we send to the atmosphere. When Republicans held the majority in the Senate, unfortunately, their signature legislative achievement was a massive tax break for corporations and the wealthy. From one report I read, the top 1 percent got 83 percent of the benefits when the Republicans had power. What a difference when Democrats are in power. You know what the top 1 percent got in the ARP bill? Zero. Nada. Nothing. God bless them. They are doing great. They don't need it. Democrats, instead, are strengthening the backbone of the middle class, and that is what we are going to do in this jobs and family plan. American workers, American families are going to benefit while we address the generational challenge of climate change. And as I have said from the start, Madam President--as I have said from the start--the two tracks of infrastructure are going to move in tandem. We are making good progress on both tracks. We in the Democratic caucus heard from the President yesterday on the budget resolution. The meeting was wonderful. The excitement was palpable. The opportunity to do so much good for so many American families was in the air in that meeting. It was exciting. And, as that happened, the bipartisan working groups had many meetings on the bipartisan infrastructure framework as well. Today, I am announcing that I intend to file cloture on the vehicle for a bipartisan infrastructure bill on Monday of next week. Senators will have until Wednesday of next week before the initial vote on cloture on the motion to proceed. Everyone has been having productive conversations, and it is important to keep the two-track process moving. All parties involved in the bipartisan infrastructure bill talks must now finalize their agreement so that the Senate can begin considering that legislation next week. And I am setting the same deadline, next Wednesday, for the entire Senate Democratic caucus to agree to move forward on the budget resolution with reconciliation instructions. The time has come to make progress, and we will. We must

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, well, late last night, after a very, very, just amazing meeting--several-hour meeting--of the Budget Committee, where people spoke their minds and we came together, last night, the Senate Democratic majority on the Budget Committee reached a landmark agreement on a $3.5 trillion budget resolution, which will pave the way for historic legislation later this year called the American Jobs and Families Plan. Very simply, this budget resolution will allow us to pass the most significant legislation to expand support and help American families since the New Deal--since the New Deal. This is a generational and transformational change to help American families, who need the help in this rapidly changing world. Every major program that President Biden has asked for is funded in a robust way. The President will be attending the Democratic caucus lunch later today to talk about not only agreement but the next steps along the way. When you consider the American Jobs and Families Plan, in conjunction with the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which is close to $600 billion, you get $4.1 trillion, which is very, very close to the total amount that President Biden has asked Congress to invest. Both traditional infrastructure, like roads and bridges, and social infrastructure--we mean by that things that help people and families directly, such as healthcare, family leave, and education--will receive the kind of support that the American people so need and are asking for. We are very proud of this plan. Now, we know, the road ahead is going to be long. There are bumps along the way. This is only the first step in a long road we will have to travel and must travel, but we are going to get this done because we so fervently believe that we must make average American lives a whole lot better. We want middle-class people to be able to stay in the middle class and breathe easier in the middle class. We want poor people to be able to climb that ladder to get to the middle class. And nothing, nothing that has been put on the floor of this Senate will do that better than this bill. Nothing that has been put on the floor of the Senate for the last several decades will do that the way this bill will. It is transformational. And, frankly, it is exciting. The eventual legislation we are talking about is best understood in three buckets: jobs, families, climate. Instead of giving a giant tax break to large corporations and the wealthy, as our Republican colleagues did when they were in the majority, we are going to strengthen the backbone of the middle class by making critical investments in infrastructure, creating thousands upon thousands upon thousands of good-paying jobs in the process with apprenticeships and training so that people who never had opportunities to have these jobs can get them and then lead good lives for decades later. The resolution will make sure that there are no tax increases for families under $400,000 and no tax increases for small businesses. This is about rebuilding the middle class and creating jobs. And we will change our tax policy far different than what our Republican friends did. The very wealthy, the people at the top who escaped paying all or a lot of taxes--no, no, no--they are going to pay their fair share for the first time in a long time, so different than what our Republican colleagues did. Their bill gave the top 1 percent a huge percentage, some estimated as high as 83 percent of the breaks. We are going to give it to the middle class, to the working people. For American families, we will introduce paid family leave, as well as one important addition to President Biden's proposal, which is a robust expansion of Medicare to cover dental, vision, and hearing. This is something that Chairman Sanders, Budget Chairman Sanders, has championed and alerted not just this Chamber but the Nation to its need. We are going to get it done. And on climate, we must act on climate. We have seen what is going on just in the last month. We are going to invest in green infrastructure--strong, bold, green infrastructure; electric vehicles; clean and renewable power; resilient projects, housing, and more that will not only help our country adapt to a changing climate but slow climate change itself. On top of President Biden's plans, Democrats will add other policies to significantly deal with climate, such as reducing methane emissions, one of the most potent and deadly of the greenhouse gases. So jobs, families, climate, these are the three buckets that Democrats will be working on. Again, let me repeat. There is a long road ahead of us. But the fact that we were able to come together last night with the diverse views on the Budget Committee was a strong shot out of the gate. Now, I am sure my friends on the other side of the aisle are going to pan this and say one thing or another. We can predict they will label anything where we reach out to help American families. They don't want to do that. They just want to help those wealthy people. They don't want their taxes to rise. They don't want the government to help the people, so they are going to criticize it and use their usual name- calling. That is what they have been doing for years, no matter what legislation there is. I am quite sure they will raise phony concerns about the debt and deficit. Hello, my colleagues, you raised the deficit by $2 trillion so you can give tax cuts; namely, to wealthy people and big corporations. And now you are going to claim, when we want to help middle-class families, poor families, that there is a deficit? Give us and give the American people a break. It is hypocrisy. The American people won't buy their criticisms. Creating jobs; providing family leave; making education, housing, and healthcare more affordable; fighting climate change, no one seriously believes that these policies are the policies on the road to what they might call socialism. These are what American people want. Paid family leave, helping people go to college, come on, that is part of our democratic tradition where we build ladders up. And I mean small ``d,'' American tradition, where we build ladders up to help people climb up and live a good life. So the goals we must pursue are goals to build back our middle class, secure our middle class, help more people get to the middle class, to bolster our economy, to lay the foundation for another century of American prosperity, just as Franklin Roosevelt did close to 100 years ago. And that is exactly what the Democratic majority is going to do

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. I yield the floor.

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at a time to be determined by the majority leader in consultation with the Republican leader, the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 1652, which was received from the House and is at the desk, and that the only amendment in order be the following: Toomey No. 2121; further, that there be 2 hours for debate equally divided between the leaders or their designees; that upon the use or yielding back of time, the Senate vote in relation to the Toomey amendment; that upon the disposition of the Toomey amendment, the bill, as amended, if amended, be considered read a third time; that the Senate vote on passage of the bill, as amended, if amended, with a 60 affirmative vote threshold required for passage; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate; finally, that there be 2 minutes of debate equally divided prior to each vote in the series.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, now, on another issue, infrastructure and climate. Over the past few weeks, we have seen an awful heat wave hit Oregon and Washington. Those States in the beautiful Northwest, always known for their cool summer breezes, had temperatures like 115 degrees. It was just astounding, not just a little temperature bump but dramatically unusual. Temperatures in the Pacific Northwest climbed so high that power cables melted and roadways cracked in two. At the same time, in the American Southwest, the lack of rainfall and depleted reservoirs have led to a historic lack of water. According to the National Drought Mitigation Center, more than 77 percent of the great State of New Mexico is in a state of severe drought. As climate change continues to worsen, extreme weather like this, unfortunately, is only becoming more common, putting our agriculture, our infrastructure, our economy, and our people's health at grave risk. That is why I have made addressing the climate crisis in a bold way a primary focus of our upcoming debate on infrastructure. We are working with great urgency to make this happen. And we are going to do it in two ways: First, climate change has forced us to repair and rebuild our infrastructure in a way that takes into account our new reality. Our infrastructure must become more resilient to extreme weather. In New York, I insisted that the Hurricane Sandy aid, for which New York and New Jersey got $60 billion, focus on resiliency. And as we rebuild from Hurricane Sandy using those Federal dollars, we have done it in a way that makes flooding in downtown New York City and Long Island less likely. We need to repeat that effort across the country to deal with heat waves, droughts, wildfires, more powerful hurricanes and even more. But, second, we must use infrastructure investment to combat climate change itself, not just make ourselves more resilient. If it keeps getting worse, resiliency goes up, global warming gets higher-- resiliency goes up. We need to have this go down. That is so, so important. And what are we doing? In President Biden's proposal and in the proposals Democrats are putting forward, we are investing in green infrastructure, clean and renewable power, electric vehicles and charging infrastructure, and retrofitting our economy to reduce carbon emissions and slow climate change in both urban, suburban, and rural areas. Investing in both elements--resiliency and green infrastructure--that will create thousands upon thousands of good- paying union American jobs in the process. So as discussions continue on both a bipartisan infrastructure bill and a budget resolution, Senators of both parties must understand that the issues of climate change and infrastructure cannot--cannot--be separated from one another. I yield the floor.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. I yield the floor.

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, pursuant to S. Res. 27, the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions being tied on the question of reporting, I move to discharge the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions from further consideration of the nomination of Jennifer Ann Abruzzo, of New York, to be General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board.

Mr. SCHUMER

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

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I will have my remarks, but first I will do a little bit of housekeeping.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I understand there are two bills at the desk due for a second reading en bloc.

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

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, in a democracy, no right is more sacred than the right to vote. And yet, across the country, Republican- controlled State legislatures are conducting the most sweeping and coordinated attack on voting rights in generations, fueled by Donald Trump's insidious Big Lie that the election was stolen. In several States, limits have been placed on voting hours, polling locations, and methods of voting. Barriers have been raised to make voting by mail, absentee voting, afterhours voting, and early voting harder. Republican legislatures are not only making it harder to vote, they are making it easier to steal an election. They actually believe that. Donald Trump does the Big Lie, everyone knows it is a lie, and now Republican legislatures are acting on that Big Lie and saying we could steal an election. What is happening to our democracy? Stripping independent election officials of power, giving partisan election bodies more control, even firing members of county election boards, this is what Republican legislatures are doing, not for fairness, not for bipartisanship but to jaundice elections. And if the consequence is Americans of all parties feel that the elections are not fair, what is going to happen to this sacred and wonderful democracy? Republicans are actively dismantling all the barriers that prevented Donald Trump from subverting our elections in 2020. Imagine if they hadn't been in effect. Imagine. All of these efforts have an Orwellian logic. Under the guise of ``election integrity,'' Republican legislatures are sowing more doubt about our elections through phony audits and fact-free claims of voter fraud, lying claims of voter fraud. They are lying. I just saw on TV this morning how the Trump lawyers are being lambasted in court. And even Rudy Giuliani has lost his license to practice because they lied about the election, that they perpetrated the Big Lie in legal documents. The same thing is happening everywhere. What is happening to this Republican Party? What is happening? When Donald Trump, the biggest liar we have ever had as President, sets the tone and they follow in those lies, repeat those lies, sometimes even embellish on those lies, what is happening to that party, the party of Abraham Lincoln? Falsely claiming that the election was ``stolen,'' Republican legislatures are making elections easier to overturn, even under the falsest and biggest of lies. And what happens here? Our Republican friends here in Washington have chosen a path of supine compliance, refusing to stand up to the Big Lie, bowing down before it, bowing down before Donald Trump, the biggest liar that we have ever had as an American President, except when the Capitol Building is literally under siege. And, by the way, just parenthetically, I commend to my colleagues and to all Americans--the New York Times did a video of the siege. They even had some--they showed the siege; they showed the violence; and they had some Republican Congressmen saying it was like tourists. It was incredible. I recommend everyone should watch this. And I hope-- Republican colleagues, just watch it. You were there. Just watch it. I commend the New York Times. They did a great job on it. Anyway, the effort to fight this wave of voter suppression and Republican election rigging is strong and growing. I want to be very clear about that. In Texas, where the Republican Governor has called a special session to reconsider one of the most restrictive voting laws in the Nation, Democrats are doing all they can to block the dangerous partisan bill. They are brave. They are bold. They are courageous, and history will show them on the side of right and the Republican Governor--I saw him on TV this morning--on the side of deep, dark, ugly wrong. Many of these lawmakers from Texas have come to Washington. I will be meeting with a group of them today to plot out strategy and to praise them for what they are doing. President Biden will also address the issue of voting rights in a major national address in Philadelphia, using the bully pulpit to draw the Nation's attention and announce ways in which his administration can defend Americans' fundamental rights. And next week, Senator Klobuchar--always on the ball on these issues--will lead the Senate Rules Committee to the State of Georgia-- your State, I say to the Presiding Officer--for their first field hearing in 20 years. It will be an opportunity to shine a spotlight on the consequences of the Big Lie and show the American people just how far Republicans have gone in order to make it harder--harder--for people to vote in the 2020 election. The bottom line is this: Democrats will not stop fighting to protect voting rights and defend our democracy. As I said, the vote in June was the opening gun, not the finish line. Last month, all 50 Senate Democrats united for the first time this Congress to move forward on a strong voting rights bill. Shamefully, shamefully, Republicans refused to even allow debate on voting rights legislation, hiding behind some of the exact same States' rights arguments, and very similar arguments, that southern Senators used in the 1960s to oppose the Voting Rights Act. How do you feel about that, Republicans and Republican leadership? How do you feel about using the same arguments that were used by some of the arch segregationists to stop voting rights in the Senate in the 1960s? Last month, as I said, the vote represented the starting gun, not the finish line, in the fight to protect voting rights. As majority leader, I reserve the right to bring back voting rights and democracy reform for another vote on the Senate floor

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 120.

Mr. SCHUMER

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

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, finally, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum calls for the cloture motions filed today, July 12, be waived.

Mr. SCHUMER. I yield the floor.

Mr. SCHUMER

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

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. 154.

Mr. SCHUMER

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