[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 121 (Thursday, July 18, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S4926]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       Senate Legislative Agenda

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, last night, we saw the President of the 
United States, who has spent years maligning America, continue to 
malign Americans. The President once again whipped up a toxic brew of 
racism, xenophobia, and nativism, with his crowd chanting ``send her 
back'' about a duly elected Member of Congress and a U.S. citizen--one 
of the oldest and ugliest racist attacks against Americans of color.
  The way the President appeals to the worst instincts of people and 
what was shouted and chanted at the rally last night without the 
President's upbraiding them was despicable and eerily familiar to what 
happens in dictatorships.
  We all know that the only way President Trump will stop this is for 
Republicans--his own party--to demand it. The only way President Trump 
will stop is when Republicans on the other side have the honor, the 
decency, and the courage to tell him to stop. All we hear is silence 
and diversions from Leader McConnell.
  So, America, if you don't like what the President says, if it gets 
you upset and makes your hairs stand on end, say: This is not the 
America I know and love. Whatever your political views, call your 
Senators and tell them to tell President Trump to stop this.
  Argue the merits, argue the issues, but stop this appeal to the worst 
instincts--the worst instincts. And our Republican friends are silent.
  History will show this. This is a moment. There is no John McCain 
anymore. When this kind of bitter racism emerged in his townhall 
meeting, he rejected it publicly when somebody used it against then-
Candidate Obama. It went down in history as one of his finest moments. 
Where are the fine moments of my colleagues? There are 53 of them on 
the Republican side, and not one has spoken out strongly enough--not 
one.
  They are quiet on everything else, too--things that matter to average 
Americans to help make their lives better. Where are our Republican 
friends on the substantive issues that can help Americans of all colors 
and creeds--all colors and creeds--help Americans whether their 
families have been in this country for 11 generations, as some of my 
friends have been, or are new immigrants, as some of my friends are? In 
New York, we have everybody.
  Here are some of the things our Republican friends can do. The House 
has passed legislation to improve our healthcare system and intervene 
in the lawsuit against eliminating protections for Americans with 
preexisting conditions, but Leader McConnell--once again silent--sent 
the bill to his legislative graveyard. The House has passed legislation 
to close loopholes in our gun background check system. This is no 
longer controversial. Ninety percent of Americans are for it--90 
percent. Leader McConnell has sent that bill, too, to the legislative 
graveyard. Climate change, voting rights, paycheck fairness for women--
all are in the legislative graveyard.
  Where are my Republican friends on those issues? Why aren't they 
standing up and saying that we should at least debate them here in the 
Senate? Democrats have had to petition for weeks to even be allowed 
amendment votes on issues of importance to the American people.
  It is a sorry state of affairs here in the Senate. I believe it has 
frustrated many of my Republican friends--I hear it from them 
privately--as well as us Democrats, because while we may not always 
agree on legislative solutions to a problem--we are not all supposed to 
agree; this is not a dictatorship--we want to debate the issues. We 
want to make forward progress.
  My Republican colleagues know that they didn't come here just to 
rubberstamp an assembly line of the President's nominees, judicial and 
executive, and neither did we, but under Leader McConnell, legislative 
progress is the lowest and often last priority.


                               H.R. 1327

  Madam President, for example, yesterday, my colleague Senator 
Gillibrand asked unanimous consent to reauthorize the Victim 
Compensation Fund for the brave first responders who got sick after 
working on the pile after 9/11. It is as unobjectionable a piece of 
legislation as you can imagine. These are the people who rushed to the 
towers after 9/11. They got all kinds of gunk in their lungs and in 
their gastrointestinal systems and later developed cancer. Many of them 
are now gone, some of them are people I became friends with, like Ray 
Pfeifer and Detective Alvarez. And all we want to do is what we do with 
our soldiers when they are on the battlefield and get illnesses and 
wounds. We want to help them. That is all. Nothing more. Yet, over the 
course of the last several years, again, our Republican friends, aided 
and abetted by Leader McConnell, have either blocked this legislation 
or diluted it. But now it seems there is a breakthrough.
  In the House, this bill passed with I think only 12 Republicans 
objecting. Conservative Members like Mark Meadows, who is head of the 
Freedom Caucus, Leader McCarthy, and Whip Scalise all voted for it. Why 
can't we just bring it to the floor and vote on it here? We should.
  My colleague from Kentucky, Rand Paul, objected. Bring it to the 
floor. Bring it to the floor. Give him an amendment, but let's not just 
have this one lay in the legislative graveyard as well. I am hopeful it 
will not because as soon as it passes the Senate--and we don't want to 
amend it because that will send it back to the House, and who knows 
what will happen in the back-and-forth--if we just pass the bill as is 
and defeat an amendment that is not intended to help or improve it, it 
will go to the President's desk, and he will sign it. Even if he 
doesn't, there are veto-proof majorities in both Chambers to overcome 
it.
  Senator Gillibrand, my friend and colleague who has done so much on 
this issue, will try again today to get this Chamber's consent to pass 
the bill. If the junior Senator from Kentucky again blocks the bill, I 
strongly urge the senior Senator from Kentucky, Leader McConnell, to 
put the bill on the floor. It is unacceptable that once again we are 
dealing with delays on legislation to help our brave 9/11 first 
responders, some of whom are gone, many of whom are ill, and many more 
of whom will get ill in the future from the diseases they acquired 
because of their bravery and selflessness on 9/11.