Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Donald Trump Threatening To Hold TSA Funding Hostage As Chaos At Airports Continues Until The Senate Passes Voter Suppression

Washington, D.C. - Today, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) spoke on the Senate floor on Donald Trump insisting the Senate should prioritize Republicans' voter suppression legislation bill, the SAVE Act, over allowing TSA agents to be paid for their hard work. Below are Senator Schumer's remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Over the weekend-and for weeks now-Democrats have engaged Republicans in good faith to pay our TSA workers, to fund DHS, while also enacting commonsense safeguards to rein in ICE.

Both sides talked all weekend long. We had some constructive conversations but there is considerably more work to be done and Democrats are ready to keep negotiating.

Democrats believe TSA staff should be paid now.

We tried to move forward this weekend to pay these workers, but Republicans blocked pay for TSA workers in a roll call vote, where they all voted no on Saturday. Additionally, they have blocked pay for TSA workers seven times, when Democrats have tried to bring it up. It's preposterous, because the chaos at airports is unacceptable. Still, Democrats are going to keep working in good faith.

Donald Trump, meanwhile, is trying to sabotage negotiations, demanding that talks stop entirely until Congress passes the SAVE Act-a bill that has nothing, nothing, to do with paying TSA workers and nothing to do with ending the shutdown.

That's right: Donald Trump is now essentially saying, we'll pay TSA only after Congress passes voter suppression. What a ridiculous thing to do. What a callous thing to do. He doesn't give a damn about the American people. He cares about his own election. He thinks this SAVE Act, which isn't going to pass, will change how the election comes out, and he uses millions and millions of Americans as hostages. How can our Republican friends, on the other side of the aisle, go along with this? It stinks on its face. You don't need any deeper explanation.

This morning, unfortunately, Trump doubled down, in Memphis, saying as explicitly as possible that he won't pay TSA workers, and he won't end this shutdown, until the SAVE Act is passed.

Let's make it very clear: Donald Trump is the one standing in the way of paychecks for TSA workers with this ridiculous attempt to pass the SAVE Act. The SAVE Act, which would destroy a lot of what we know about democracy. The SAVE Act, which would disenfranchise 20 million American citizens, in all likelihood, from voting in the next election. The SAVE Act, which is designed to do, as Kristi Noem said, to allow people to vote whom we like how they vote, as opposed to others.

Well Donald Trump: your latest temper tantrum is not going to work. The SAVE Act does not have the votes to pass this chamber, and Democrats will fight it every step of the way. The SAVE Act has nothing to do with Homeland Security. It has nothing to do with TSA workers, or making sure ICE follows the same rules as every other federal law enforcement agency in the country. Every other law enforcement agency needs a warrant when they bust into your home. Every other law enforcement agency doesn't wear masks. Trump and the Republicans are insisting that continue, and they're saying we're holding TSA workers and millions and millions of passengers hostage. And now, all of a sudden, in addition to that, Trump says, I won't move forward unless we pass the SAVE Act, which isn't going to happen, Mr. Trump. It is not going to happen.

Democrats' position has not changed: we want to pay TSA workers today. We are ready to meet with the White House today to keep talking. In fact, we were going to meet this morning with Tom Homan. But apparently the White House pulled that meeting, because of Donald Trump's temper tantrum. They're all scrambling around there in the White House. They don't know what to do. Their boss, the president, comes out with these idiotic statements every day, whether it's related to the war in Iran where he contradicts himself, whether it's related to the SAVE Act where he doesn't even know what it does, or related to the what's happening in homeland security.

We hope Donald Trump will stop derailing these talks and let negotiations continue. Democrats want to be reasonable and we're going to keep working in good faith to reach a solution. We need to pay TSA workers ASAP. The American people want ICE to change its violent ways. They do not want a repeat of kind of violence we saw earlier this year in Minnesota. They certainly do not want to see ICE detaining passengers at airports and making things worse.

Donald Trump is tying himself in a triple knot on the Iran war, on the SAVE Act, and on TSA workers, and he tightens that knot around his waist-last night, by saying ICE should go to the airports, then today by saying he would not go forward unless SAVE Act passed. He's making it harder and harder for himself. He's making himself less and less popular with the American people. And he's causing tens of millions to wonder, what is going on in that man's head. So, that's the dilemma we all face. It's the American people are who suffer. They suffer at the airports. They suffer as gas prices go up because of the Iran war. They suffer because he's threatening their democracy.

###