[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 186 (Wednesday, November 20, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6682-S6683]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                             Appropriations

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, with government funding set to expire 
tomorrow, the House of Representatives passed a continuing resolution 
yesterday to fund the government through December 20. It is now up to 
the Senate to pass the continuing resolution without much fuss and send 
it to the President's desk before the deadline.
  As the Republican leader and I work to set the time for that vote, we 
must look ahead. The continuing resolution will give appropriators 
additional time to get a bipartisan appropriations process back on 
track before the end of the year. The Senate has been able to process 
several noncontroversial appropriations bills, bipartisan, but several 
more can't move forward until the Democrats and the Republicans both 
all agree on the allocations. You can't do it with one party. That 
leads to trouble. In recent days, we have made some progress, and I 
hope the talks between both sets of appropriators--House and Senate, 
Democratic and Republican--will continue in good faith and in earnest 
after we finish the continuing resolution.
  At the same time, there are several very important issues the 
Democrats are trying to address in the continuing

[[Page S6683]]

resolution that the Senate Republicans refuse to address. Most notably, 
the Republicans objected to restoring expired funding for the minority-
serving institutions, including historically Black colleges and 
universities, Tribal colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving 
institutions, Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-
serving institutions, and predominantly Black institutions.
  These are ladders up. Such a high percentage of people of color--
people in minority groups--use these colleges to create great lives for 
themselves. They work hard, and they study. There are no alternatives 
for them other than these institutions. To hold the money back, which 
is what the other side is doing, is so wrong. It is so unfair.
  The Democrats will not stop fighting the fight to help these 
institutions, and we are committed to securing this funding in any way 
we can. These are American dream institutions. If you believe in the 
American dream, you shouldn't be holding this money back.