Leader Schumer Floor Remarks Condemning Republicans For Needlessly Extending The DHS Shutdown

Washington, D.C. - Today, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) spoke on the Senate floor condemning Republicans for prolonging the DHS shutdown and trying to pass a partisan reconciliation bill to give ICE and CBP more money without any commonsense reforms, instead of addressing the high cost of living. Below are Senator Schumer's remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Any hour now, Republicans are expected to release a budget resolution that adds tens of billions of dollars to the national debt, pumps colossal sums into ICE and Border Patrol without any reforms at all, while doing absolutely nothing to lower costs for hardworking Americans.

We need to pause and examine how we got to this moment. Because in a well-functioning Congress, the majority focuses on solving people's problems - not constantly cleaning up their own messes and shoveling tens of billions more into unaccountable rogue agencies.

Remember: last year, in Donald Trump's "Big, Ugly Betrayal," Republicans rammed through $75 billion for ICE and tens of billions more for Border Patrol, with virtually no guardrails, minimal training standards, and no real idea of what they were unleashing.

Well, that led to disaster, as could've been predicted. In January, federal immigration officers in Minneapolis murdered two American citizens in broad daylight, triggering a reckoning across the country. After the murders of Alex Pretti and Renée Good, the American people wanted change. Democrats told our Republican colleagues we needed to work together to rein in ICE and Border Patrol and prevent this kind of violence from happening again.

We put forward common-sense reforms modeled on guardrails law enforcement already follow in the states: no masked agents in unmarked vehicles, no bursting into people's homes without warrants, and body cameras for all agents. But after weeks of back-and-forth, it became painfully obvious that Republicans were not serious about reform.

Instead of listening to the people, Senate Republicans listened to Donald Trump and Stephen Miller. Even when Democrats offered to narrow the reforms to a small, targeted set of proposals in exchange for funding, Republicans, afraid of Trump, afraid of Miller, said no.

Leader Thune eventually brought a bill to the floor that would fund the rest of DHS while leaving ICE and Border Patrol aside as negotiations on reforms continued. Democrats unanimously supported this bill-it was something we had been pushing for weeks- because we believe FEMA, the Coast Guard, CISA, TSA, and the other core agencies of DHS must be able to serve the American people.

But that agreement is now collecting dust in the House. Speaker Johnson and House Republicans refuse to move it.

And that brings us to where we are today. It is Republicans who have chosen to keep FEMA, the Coast Guard, TSA, and all other DHS agencies shut down. It is Republicans' own divisions, their own inability to govern, that has led to the longest shutdown of an agency in American history.

Even now, instead of working with Democrats, Republicans want to waste even more time by going it alone, going at it alone through reconciliation.

And any moment now, they are expected to release a budget resolution that would tee up more than $75 billion over three years for ICE and Border Patrol through reconciliation, while doing absolutely nothing to lower costs for hardworking Americans.

Let's be very clear: this is not how a well-functioning Congress should be spending its time. We should be debating legislation to help people pay for groceries, afford the rent, and bring down their electric bills. We should be focused on outrageous gas prices and on reining in Donald Trump's costly military endeavors. Instead, Republicans are preparing to spend precious time bogging the Senate down in partisan bickering.

And at a moment when President Trump claims we cannot afford Medicare or daycare, Republicans somehow think that we can give ICE and Border Patrol a blank check. Isn't that amazing, people are suffering because they can't pay for their health care needs, and instead the Republicans want to send more money to ICE and Border Patrol.

One thing is clear, one thing is very clear: Americans cannot afford the cost of Republicans' continued chaos.

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