[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 123 (Wednesday, July 14, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4871-S4872]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                 Budget

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, well, late last night, after a very, 
very, just amazing meeting--several-hour meeting--of the Budget 
Committee, where people spoke their minds and we came together, last 
night, the Senate Democratic majority on the Budget Committee reached a 
landmark agreement on a $3.5 trillion budget resolution, which will 
pave the way for historic legislation later this year called the 
American Jobs and Families Plan.
  Very simply, this budget resolution will allow us to pass the most 
significant legislation to expand support and help American families 
since the New Deal--since the New Deal. This is a generational and 
transformational change to help American families, who need the help in 
this rapidly changing world.
  Every major program that President Biden has asked for is funded in a 
robust way. The President will be attending the Democratic caucus lunch 
later today to talk about not only agreement but the next steps along 
the way. When you consider the American Jobs and Families Plan, in 
conjunction with the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which is close to 
$600 billion, you get $4.1 trillion, which is very, very close to the 
total amount that President Biden has asked Congress to invest.

[[Page S4872]]

  Both traditional infrastructure, like roads and bridges, and social 
infrastructure--we mean by that things that help people and families 
directly, such as healthcare, family leave, and education--will receive 
the kind of support that the American people so need and are asking 
for. We are very proud of this plan.

  Now, we know, the road ahead is going to be long. There are bumps 
along the way. This is only the first step in a long road we will have 
to travel and must travel, but we are going to get this done because we 
so fervently believe that we must make average American lives a whole 
lot better.
  We want middle-class people to be able to stay in the middle class 
and breathe easier in the middle class. We want poor people to be able 
to climb that ladder to get to the middle class. And nothing, nothing 
that has been put on the floor of this Senate will do that better than 
this bill. Nothing that has been put on the floor of the Senate for the 
last several decades will do that the way this bill will. It is 
transformational. And, frankly, it is exciting.
  The eventual legislation we are talking about is best understood in 
three buckets: jobs, families, climate. Instead of giving a giant tax 
break to large corporations and the wealthy, as our Republican 
colleagues did when they were in the majority, we are going to 
strengthen the backbone of the middle class by making critical 
investments in infrastructure, creating thousands upon thousands upon 
thousands of good-paying jobs in the process with apprenticeships and 
training so that people who never had opportunities to have these jobs 
can get them and then lead good lives for decades later.
  The resolution will make sure that there are no tax increases for 
families under $400,000 and no tax increases for small businesses. This 
is about rebuilding the middle class and creating jobs. And we will 
change our tax policy far different than what our Republican friends 
did. The very wealthy, the people at the top who escaped paying all or 
a lot of taxes--no, no, no--they are going to pay their fair share for 
the first time in a long time, so different than what our Republican 
colleagues did. Their bill gave the top 1 percent a huge percentage, 
some estimated as high as 83 percent of the breaks. We are going to 
give it to the middle class, to the working people.
  For American families, we will introduce paid family leave, as well 
as one important addition to President Biden's proposal, which is a 
robust expansion of Medicare to cover dental, vision, and hearing. This 
is something that Chairman Sanders, Budget Chairman Sanders, has 
championed and alerted not just this Chamber but the Nation to its 
need. We are going to get it done.
  And on climate, we must act on climate. We have seen what is going on 
just in the last month. We are going to invest in green 
infrastructure--strong, bold, green infrastructure; electric vehicles; 
clean and renewable power; resilient projects, housing, and more that 
will not only help our country adapt to a changing climate but slow 
climate change itself.
  On top of President Biden's plans, Democrats will add other policies 
to significantly deal with climate, such as reducing methane emissions, 
one of the most potent and deadly of the greenhouse gases.
  So jobs, families, climate, these are the three buckets that 
Democrats will be working on.
  Again, let me repeat. There is a long road ahead of us. But the fact 
that we were able to come together last night with the diverse views on 
the Budget Committee was a strong shot out of the gate.
  Now, I am sure my friends on the other side of the aisle are going to 
pan this and say one thing or another. We can predict they will label 
anything where we reach out to help American families. They don't want 
to do that. They just want to help those wealthy people. They don't 
want their taxes to rise. They don't want the government to help the 
people, so they are going to criticize it and use their usual name-
calling. That is what they have been doing for years, no matter what 
legislation there is. I am quite sure they will raise phony concerns 
about the debt and deficit.
  Hello, my colleagues, you raised the deficit by $2 trillion so you 
can give tax cuts; namely, to wealthy people and big corporations. And 
now you are going to claim, when we want to help middle-class families, 
poor families, that there is a deficit? Give us and give the American 
people a break. It is hypocrisy.
  The American people won't buy their criticisms. Creating jobs; 
providing family leave; making education, housing, and healthcare more 
affordable; fighting climate change, no one seriously believes that 
these policies are the policies on the road to what they might call 
socialism. These are what American people want. Paid family leave, 
helping people go to college, come on, that is part of our democratic 
tradition where we build ladders up. And I mean small ``d,'' American 
tradition, where we build ladders up to help people climb up and live a 
good life.
  So the goals we must pursue are goals to build back our middle class, 
secure our middle class, help more people get to the middle class, to 
bolster our economy, to lay the foundation for another century of 
American prosperity, just as Franklin Roosevelt did close to 100 years 
ago. And that is exactly what the Democratic majority is going to do