Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Avoiding A Harmful And Unnecessary Republican Government Shutdown

Washington, D.C. - Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on the need to avoid a harmful and unnecessary government shutdown. Below are Senator Schumer's remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Yesterday afternoon, to the surprise of virtually no one, Speaker Johnson's deeply flawed and highly partisan CR failed by a vote of 202-220.

The no votes included Democrats, Republicans, fiscal hawks, conservative ideologues, and people in between. In other words, there was broad opposition to the Speaker's partisan maneuver. It's time the Speaker moves on.

Sadly, time is not a luxury that Congress has right now. Today is September 19^th. The government shut down September 30^th. That's eleven days away.

And instead of doing the bipartisan work everyone knows is required for avoiding a shutdown, the House Republican Leadership has wasted two weeks - two weeks - listening to Donald Trump's ridiculous claims on the campaign trail. Now that their efforts have failed, House Republicans don't seem to have any plan for actually keeping the government open.

So, the Senate will step in.

Later today, I will file cloture on a legislative vehicle that will enable us to prevent a Trump shutdown, in the event Speaker Johnson does not work with us in a bipartisan, bicameral manner.

Both sides are going to spend the next few days trying to figure out the best path remaining for keeping the government open.

By filing today, I am giving the Senate maximum flexibility for preventing a shutdown. Democrats and Americans don't want a Trump shutdown. I dare say most Republicans - at least in this chamber - don't want to see a Trump shutdown. And the American people certainly don't want their elected representatives in Washington creating a shutdown for the sake of Donald Trump's claims, when it's clear he doesn't even know how the legislative process works.

Senators are ready to work this process the right way: Democrats talking to Republicans, both sides at the negotiating table, finding a way to keep the government open without partisan hoopla.

The Speaker must choose: either keep paying blind obeisance to Donald Trump and his ridiculous claims, or work with both parties to spare the American people from a Republican shutdown.

And just a parenthetical note: how does anyone expect Donald Trump to be a president when he has such little understanding of the legislative process? He's daring the Congress to shut down. I remember he did that with Speaker Pelosi and I in his office a while back. It didn't work out too well for him. Our Republican colleagues should not blindly follow Donald Trump. He doesn't know what he's doing.

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