[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 75 (Tuesday, May 7, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2659-S2660]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       SENATE LEGISLATIVE AGENDA

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, let me now talk about something 
related--the legislative graveyard.
  Leader McConnell says: Let's move on and work together. There hasn't 
been a single bill put on the floor on issues we can debate, whether it 
is protecting preexisting conditions, making our education system 
better, dealing with the problem of the high cost of drugs, doing 
infrastructure--nothing. Just appointments have been put on the floor. 
And nothing has been done on election security at the very minimum.
  I know the leader is afraid to debate what happened and explore what 
happened given the tawdry history of certainly President Trump and of 
Senate Republicans in responding to this serious issue, but at least he 
could move forward and we could put some bills on the floor and debate 
them to strengthen our election security, which everyone admits is 
weak.
  So if Leader McConnell, as he says, is ready to move on to serious 
things, then how about bringing forward legislation to protect our 
elections? For 4 months, the Senate has been little more than a 
legislative graveyard, and election security is exhibit A.
  The House passed important reforms to improve and safeguard our 
elections. No action here in the Senate. We have a bipartisan election 
security bill waiting in committee. No movement from the leader.

[[Page S2660]]

  As long as this place remains a legislative graveyard, we are rolling 
out the welcome mat for foreign adversaries--not just Russia but Iran, 
Turkey, North Korea, China--to interfere in our elections. We are 
essentially encouraging a sequel to 2016 because the leader is sitting 
on his hands, because the leader is presiding over a legislative 
graveyard on election security and just about everything else. What 
about bipartisan background checks? What about paycheck fairness? What 
about election reform? What about even the Violence Against Women Act, 
which passed the House with 33 Republicans? None of those are being put 
on the floor so that we can act and debate.
  Later this morning, my friend Senator Udall will come here to the 
floor to press our Republican friends to take up this bill and shed 
light on the fact that it includes long-overdue reforms to protect 
Native American women. The House is moving on legislation this week to 
protect our healthcare law and protections for Americans with 
preexisting conditions from the administration's efforts to destroy 
those protections. There is no reason for Leader McConnell, who says he 
wants to move on, to let these bills collect dust in the Senate. Even 
if he doesn't love every particular in these bills, why not bring them 
to the floor to debate and amend? Surely, we could find a way to agree 
on issues. Ninety, ninety-five percent of Americans agree on every one 
of these. But the Republican Party and Leader McConnell are so in the 
grasp of powerful special interests and lobbyists from the hard right 
that they are afraid to move any of this.

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