Floor Statements

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I have two requests for committees to meet during today's session of the Senate. They have the approval of the Majority and Minority Leaders.

Pursuant to 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:

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 522 submitted earlier today.

Madam President, in this criminal case pending in Federal district court in the District of Columbia and arising out of the events of January 6, 2021, the prosecution has requested testimony from a Senate witness.

In this case, brought against John George Todd III, trial is expected to commence on January 22, 2024, and the prosecution has requested testimony from Daniel Schwager, formerly counsel to the Secretary of the Senate, concerning his knowledge and observations of the process and constitutional and legal bases for Congress's counting of the Electoral College votes. Senate Secretary Berry would like to cooperate with this request by providing relevant testimony in this trial from Mr. Schwager.

In keeping with the rules and practices of the Senate, this resolution would authorize the production of relevant testimony from Mr. Schwager, with representation by the Senate legal counsel.

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.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 523, which was submitted earlier today.

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.

And let me just say, speaking on behalf of so many of us in the Senate, we dearly miss Herb Kohl. He was just a fine man, a fine Senator, and a gentle voice--something we very much miss in the Senate.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 281, S. 2414.

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 made and laid upon the table.

Madam President, finally, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned under the provisions of S. Res. 523 to convene for a pro forma session only, with no business being conducted, at 8:45 a.m. on Friday, January 12; that when the Senate adjourns on Friday, it stand adjourned until 3 p.m. on Tuesday, January 16; that on Tuesday, 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 conclusion of morning business, the Senate resume consideration of the motion to proceed to Calendar No. 243, H.R. 2872, and that the cloture motion with respect to the motion to proceed ripen at 5:45 p.m.; further, that if a motion to discharge the Committee on Foreign Relations from further consideration of S. Res. 504 is made during Tuesday's session, that the Senate vote in relation to the motion to discharge at 5:30 p.m.

So for the information of all Senators, we expect Senator Sanders to move to discharge his resolution on Tuesday. Senator Sanders' resolution is privileged so Senators should expect a vote in relation to the resolution on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m., followed by a vote on cloture on the motion to proceed to the legislative vehicle for the

If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order following the remarks of Senators Sullivan and Kaine.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, as Congress approaches the January 19 funding deadline--less than 10 days away--both parties in both Chambers must work together quickly to ensure we avoid a government shutdown.

Congressional leaders agree that a shutdown would be a terrible way to start the year. Speaker Johnson and I are on the same page on that. A shutdown will hurt the economy, halt a lot of work of Congress and government, and endanger services that millions of Americans rely on.

If reasonable Members on both sides continue working together, we can ensure a shutdown is avoided. We took a big step last Sunday towards our goal when Speaker Johnson and I announced funding level top lines, and appropriators right now are hard at work drafting the 12 appropriations bills. It is good news that all four of the appropriators, the four corners, want to do this--Senator Murray, Senator Collins, and Congressmembers Granger and DeLauro. I am hopeful that if we stay the course, we can avoid a shutdown even with the tight deadline.

Now I want to return to a point I made yesterday about some of my colleagues in the House. As everyone knows, this is a period of divided government. Like it or not, it means that compromise is a necessity, and nobody is going to get everything they want in any negotiation. And, of course, the President is a Democrat, and the Senate has a Democratic majority. Anyone who wants to get anything done knows that there has to be a compromise between the Democratic President, the Democratic majority in the Senate, and the Republican majority in the House--of course taking into account our Republican colleagues in the Senate and Democratic colleagues in the House.

But right now, there are 30 or so hard-right Republicans in the House who labor under the illusion that they can bully everyone else into submission to get their narrow, hard-right agenda enacted into law. That is what they are trying to do in the appropriations process. There is only one word to describe the hard right's tactics: Bullying. Bullying. They want to bully their own conference, bully the Speaker, bully the Congress, and bully the country into accepting their extremist views.

It is easy to see why the hard right spends so much time trying to bully the rest of Congress: They have little leverage otherwise because their views are wildly out of the mainstream. These 30 or so Republican chaos agents do not represent the views of most Americans. They don't even represent the views of a great number of Republicans. They are MAGA radicals, extremists whose benchmark for success is paralysis, gridlock, chaos. They think a shutdown will help their party and help the country, but virtually no one else agrees. They are on an island.

But here is the thing: This kind of bullying almost never works. The hard right's bullying didn't work when we avoided default, it didn't work when we avoided shutdowns last year, and it is not going to work here.

Case in point: Where things stand right now in the appropriations process is little different than where we were after we passed the FRA last summer. The hard right wasted almost a year in the House by trying to bully their colleagues through the appropriations process. They wanted the Speaker to renege on the agreement codified in the FRA. Time and time again, they thwarted the House GOP's ability to even pass their own spending bills. They just wasted precious time. But for all their bluster, the hard right has nothing--nothing--to show for their bullying. The agreement we reached Sunday is practically the same number leadership shook hands on back in June.

In a body comprised of 435 voting Members, it is lunacy for the MAGA hard right to think they can puff their chest and bully the majority of their colleagues into submission. Won't happen.

This year, the American people are going to pay close attention to which party is capable of addressing their everyday needs and which is not. They will pay close attention to who is willing to reach across the aisle to get things done and who is openly calling for--almost excited about--a shutdown, which will hurt so many people. And the American people will note which is the party of chaos and which is the party of getting things done.

Make no mistake, the American people will not stand for radical MAGA Republicans whose only strategy for governing is to bully the rest of the country into submission. It will not work.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the cloture motion with respect to the Mehalchick nomination be withdrawn.

Madam 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.

Madam President, I have three requests for committees to meet during today's session of the Senate. They have the approval of the Majority and Minority Leaders.

Pursuant to 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:

Madam President, finally, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 10 a.m. on Thursday, January 11; 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 to resume consideration of the McEntarfer nomination; further, that the cloture motion with respect to the nomination ripen at 11:45 a.m. and that, if cloture is invoked, all time be considered expired at 1:45 p.m.; and finally, that if any nominations are confirmed during Thursday's session, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

Madam President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order.

Mr. President, as the Senate begins our work in 2024, three things are true. First, there is a lot we have to do at the start of the year, including funding the government, working towards a national security supplemental, confirming more nominees through the Senate, and much more.

We made good progress on many bipartisan bills last year, which we would like to bring to the floor this year.

Second, the only way we are going to get anything of consequence done is through bipartisan cooperation.

Third, the Senate is off to a good start.

A few days ago, I announced, alongside Speaker Johnson, that congressional leaders have reached a significant milestone for government funding. We have agreed to top-line funding numbers for fiscal year 2024. This now clears the path for appropriators to begin drafting the 12 appropriations bills.

Yesterday, I spoke with Chairman Murray, and then I met in my office with Leader McConnell, and we are all on the same page that we want to move as quickly as we can to finish the appropriations process.

We have only 10 days until the first deadline on January 19. So both parties must continue working together to minimize the risk of a government shutdown.

Now, it wasn't easy to come to an agreement on top-line numbers, but Democrats are very pleased with the ultimate outcome. From the beginning, Democrats had one goal in mind, our North Star, to keep nondefense funding levels at $772.7 billion, the exact same number we agreed to in June of last year when we avoided default.

Many on the hard right, particularly those in the Freedom Caucus, wanted to see that number brought down significantly, and that would have made certain devastating cuts to all sorts of programs that help millions of Americans. But Democrats, who control the Presidency and have a majority in the Senate, said no, no, no to draconian cuts. We told the hard right that they cannot bully or threaten their way to getting the kind of draconian cuts that the vast majority of Americans and many, many Republicans oppose.

You hear it when Republicans go home to their districts and brag about

some of the very things that these hard-right people want to cut.

So we held the line, and, as a result, we have successfully protected vital priorities, like housing programs, veterans' benefits, healthcare, nutrition, small business support, the NHS, and funding for Federal law enforcement.

Hard-right Republicans wanted to use the appropriations process to gut Democrats' clean energy investments that we passed in the IRA. Those too will be absolutely protected. And even though the hard right is always obsessed with starving the IRA of resources, this agreement protects important funding the IRS needs to hold ultra-rich tax evaders accountable.

This work will not be undermined. The IRS has made great progress, brought in lots of money that always should have been there, but because very wealthy people are able to hire lawyers and accountants to evade taxes, they got away with it--no more. All in all, this top-line agreement is a good outcome for the country and a strong start to the year.

Now, certainly, there is more work to do. Agreeing to a top-line number is important, but so is the next step: translating that number into 12 appropriations bills that can pass the Senate, pass the House, and reach the President's desk.

None of us want to see a government shutdown. So we will do everything possible to ensure we avoid one in the coming weeks.

If Republicans in the House follow the approach we have taken in the Senate--the bipartisan approach where Democratic and Republican appropriators have worked collaboratively, despite our disagreements-- then we can minimize the risks of a shutdown. But if House Republicans bend to the insatiable whims and demands of their hard-right flank, if they corrode the appropriations process with poison pills and extremist policy proposals, then they will be responsible for moving us closer to a shutdown. I hope that does not happen, but we will not be bullied by a few hard-right radicals.

Now, on the supplemental, Mr. President, as the new year begins, Senate Democrats remain committed to working with our Republican colleagues on passing a national security supplemental package. This work has not been easy, but it is a matter of the highest national urgency that we act. At stake is the security of our country, the security of our friends, including Ukraine and Israel, and nothing less than the future of Western democracy.

We must address these issues. Negotiators have been hard at work for weeks and worked straight through the New Year's break in hopes of reaching an agreement. The keyword in these negotiations has been persistence--persistence--and I remain hopeful that we are going to get something meaningful done.

At times, progress has been slow, and, sometimes, progress has been immensely encouraging, but, either way, the important part is we are making progress, and we are closer now than we have ever been to getting an agreement.

Congress has not acted on immigration in a comprehensive way in decades. So it should surprise no one that it is going to take time. Of all the difficult issues we face in this Chamber, immigration is near the top. But regardless of how difficult passing this supplemental is, so much, so much hangs on our success. The world is still watching how the United States will respond this year to the crises in Europe and the Middle East and to the growing tensions in the Indo-Pacific.

Our friends are watching closely too. Most of all, adversaries like Vladimir Putin are watching.

I recently read in the press that while Ukrainians remain determined to defend their country, they are running out of ammunition. According to one observer, they can fire only one salvo back for every five or so the Russians are firing at them. History will not look kindly on this episode if the United States fails to act.

So getting a supplemental done is important right now--as important as it has ever been. I know my friend the Republican Leader feels the same way, and negotiators are going to keep working until we get this done.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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