Chuck Schumer

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum call with respect to the Rosner cloture motion be waived.

Mr. SCHUMER. I yield the floor.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, last Friday, I had the opportunity to visit the Nova exhibit in New York City, downtown on Wall Street. The exhibit documents what happened on October 7. Thousands of beautiful young people gathered, as the Sun was setting, at a music festival. When you go into the exhibit, the first thing you see is thousands of young people dancing, embracing each other, and as happy as can be--young people, beautiful, in the prime of their lives, the Sun shining on them as it was setting--only to realize what had happened. The rest of the exhibit documents the brutal murder of these young people--innocent, happy, young people with so much of their lives in front of them. We see vicious Hamas terrorists machine-gunning, brutalizing, and we hear interviews that are done by the families and those who were there. So it was a wrenching experience, the contrast--this exhibit was so well done--of those beautiful young people, happily enjoying life and then knowing that hundreds of them would be slain brutally and scores of them would be kidnapped by terrorists, running away in fear. What was even worse--or at least adding salt into the wound--was that just a day or two after I visited the exhibit, protesters gathered outside the exhibit, chanting repugnant anti-Semitic phrases, donning banners that read: ``Long Live October 7th,'' and ``The Zionists are not Jews and not humans.'' How low can you go? Having visited the exhibit and seeing those young people, then knowing and seeing on film what happened to them at the vicious hands of Hamas, and then having people come outside and protest and say ``Long Live October 7th''; ``The Zionists are not Jews and not humans''--how repugnant, how despicable, how terribly unnerving that humanity could sink that low. It is the lowest of low for anyone to protest an exhibit dedicated to honoring the memory of precious lives that were brutally murdered by Hamas. It is sick that anyone should show up at an exhibit like this to protest. The protest and the vitriolic rhetoric outside the Nova exhibit were nothing short of despicable, inhumane, and anti-Semitic. Anti-Semitism, like what occurred outside the Nova Music Festival Exhibition, has no place in our city, in our State, or in America.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I have four requests for committees to meet during today's session of the Senate. They have the approval of the Majority and Minority Leaders. Pursuant rule XXVI, paragraph 5(a), of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the following committees are authorized to meet during today's session of the Senate:

Mr. SCHUMER

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

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I move to table the motion to proceed to S. 4381.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. I move to proceed to Calendar No. 413, S. 4445.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. I yield the floor.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I understand the Senate has received the House message to accompany S. 2051.

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. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 726, which is at the desk.

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, let me begin with a disturbing statistic. According to a recent poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation, one in five U.S. adults worries that the right to contraception is under threat-- one in five U.S. adults. That is more people than live in Florida or Texas or California. In the same poll, less than half of the adults said they felt the right to use birth control was secure. Americans' uncertainty about using birth control is one of the many shameful consequences of overturning Roe v. Wade. This is the mess Donald Trump, the MAGA Supreme Court, and the Republican-led Senate has created. Today, we live in a country where not only tens of millions of women have been robbed of their reproductive freedoms, we also live in a country where tens of millions more worry about something as basic as birth control. That is utterly medieval. It is sickening. It should never happen here in the United States. But because of Donald Trump and the hard right, it is reality. Today, the Senate has the chance to protect reproductive rights by advancing the Right to Contraception Act. I thank my good friends Senators Hirono and Markey for championing this bill. I thank every Senator and every advocate and every concerned citizen who has raised their voice supporting this bill. In a perfect world, a bill saying you can access birth control without government interference should not be necessary, but given the erosion of reproductive rights in America, today, it is absolutely vital. So I will be proud to vote yes today. I urge all my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to do the same. Sometimes the right answer is the obvious one. If Republicans truly support protecting access to birth control, then they should vote yes on moving this bill forward. Now, we have heard a number of very anxious arguments from the other side against moving forward on the Right to Contraception Act. We have heard that it radically expands access to abortion. We have been told it stomps all over religious liberties. We have heard that this issue is much ado about nothing. At best, these retorts are feeble and predictable, and at worst, they are dangerous. So let's set the record straight. To those who claim the Right to Contraception Act undermines religious liberties, if anything, the opposite is true. This bill absolutely protects religious liberties. There is nothing in the text forcing anyone to provide contraception if it contradicts their own beliefs. Should this bill pass, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act would remain the law of the land. To those who say outlandishly that this bill expands abortion access, that is false, full stop. I invite Americans to read this bill for themselves. There is nothing--nothing--in this bill about abortion. To suggest this bill expands abortion is vulgar fearmongering, plain and simple. The reason we hear these claims is because Republican colleagues don't want to say the quiet part out loud: The GOP, the Republican Party here in the Senate, has been totally captured by the radical MAGA right, which is totally opposed to protecting reproductive rights, even birth control, which, of course, 90 percent of Americans support. Make no mistake, if Republicans get into power, the MAGA right will push for a national abortion ban and the total elimination of reproductive care. Finally, of course, there is the more devious claim that the Right to Contraception Act is much ado about nothing, that it is unnecessary, that birth control could never possibly fall under risk. Well, remember, people said the same thing about Roe--that it could never be overturned--and then tragically, unfortunately, it was because Donald Trump and the Republican Senate filled the Supreme Court with MAGA radicals who followed through with the hard right's goal of eliminating freedom of choice. And who knows how far the hard right will go. A few years ago, it was Roe. A few years from now, it could be something else. Justice Thomas himself opened the door to undoing protections for birth control in his dissenting opinion in Dobbs. We are kidding ourselves if we think the hard right is done with their attacks on reproductive rights. Let's be perfectly clear: Attacks against birth control aren't theoretical bugaboos; it is already happening at the State level. To those who argue Federal protections for birth controls are unnecessary, go ask the people of Virginia what they think after their Republican Governor vetoed--vetoed--a bill that would have protected contraceptives at the State level. Go ask the people of Nevada what they think after their Republican Governor also vetoed a bill to protect access to birth control. To those who say birth control will never fall at risk, go ask the people of Arizona or Florida or Idaho or Iowa or Missouri. In each of these States, Republican Governors or Republican State legislators are on record blocking protections for birth control access in one form or another. So let there be no mistake: In the aftermath after Roe's demise, the threat to birth control is very, very real, and that is why it is so important for the Senate to act. This is a simple bill and a simple vote. If you believe all women deserve to have contraception, then you should vote for this bill. That is all there is to it. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, today, every Senator must take a stand: If you agree all Americans deserve access to contraception, then vote yes on the Right to Contraception Act. This bill simply says that if you want to access birth control or if you are a healthcare provider wanting to prescribe birth control, the government has no right to interfere. This is not a show vote; it is a ``show us who you are'' vote. And the American people are watching. Up to 90 percent of Americans support access to contraceptives, but today one in five adults are worried that birth control is under threat. This is just one of the consequences of overturning Roe, so we have every reason in the world to vote yes today. We should all agree that in America nobody should ever question if their ability to access contraceptives will be taken away. Sadly, that is precisely the fear more and more people feel today. Passing this bill will put those fears to rest and protect people's basic civil liberties. So, again, it is all very simple: If you agree all Americans deserve to have access to contraception, then you should support the bill. Thank you to Senators Markey, Hirono, and others for championing this legislation, and let us all vote yes. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum call, with respect to the cloture vote on the motion to proceed, be waived.

Mr. SCHUMER. I ask unanimous consent that the vote begin now.

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I enter a motion to reconsider the failed cloture vote.

Mr. SCHUMER. Just so the public should know, I switched my vote so we might reconsider and possibly vote on this again.

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 executive session to consider Calendar No. 670.

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 executive session to consider Calendar No. 668.

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. 669.