[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 157 (Monday, September 13, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6439-S6440]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       BUSINESS BEFORE THE SENATE

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, first, I want to welcome back all of my 
colleagues from the August work period. As we return to Washington, as 
everyone knows, the Senate has a very busy schedule ahead of it.
  On the nominations front, we will begin this week by holding a 
cloture vote on James Kvaal to be the Under Secretary of Education. 
Tomorrow, we will move the nominations of David Estudillo to be 
district judge of the Western District of Washington, Angel Kelly to 
serve as district judge for the District of Massachusetts, and the 
Senate will also begin consideration of Veronica Rossman to be the 
circuit judge for the Tenth Circuit.
  On the legislative front, the Senate will pick up exactly where we 
left off last month. We will continue our fight to preserve voting 
rights for millions of Americans, and, of course, we will continue 
working to pass President Biden's Build Back Better agenda and set our 
country on a path to prosperity for decades to come.
  At the end of last work period, the Senate took two important steps 
to achieving that goal. First, we passed the bipartisan $1 trillion 
infrastructure bill that will make historic investments in our Nation's 
physical infrastructure.
  Second, Senate Democrats came together to pass a budget resolution 
with reconciliation instructions that will clear the way to pass a 
reconciliation bill with historic and transformative investments in 
American jobs, American families, and the fight against climate change.
  Over the August State work period, I remained in constant 
communication with the chairs of the Senate's relevant committees, as 
well as with the Speaker and the White House, including the President. 
I am pleased to say we have made substantial progress in translating 
provisions of the budget resolution into policies we can pass into law.
  As we continue our work over the next few weeks, I want to take a 
step back and explain why this legislation is so important.

[[Page S6440]]

  For far too long, millions of American families have worried that the 
American dream has increasingly fallen out of reach. Too many in the 
middle class are just struggling to stay there. Too many who are trying 
to get to the middle class find the ladder up steeper and steeper.
  Today, the cost of raising a family, saving for college and 
retirement, getting a good-paying job and affording healthcare have 
become very, very hard. As a result, that sunny American optimism, so 
key to our national identity, has been replaced by a growing sourness 
and divisiveness in the land. We have to do better, and we will do 
better.
  With this legislation, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to 
rebuild our economy and rekindle faith in America's future. It will 
include the largest tax cut for the middle class in a generation. It 
will include provisions that are both critically important and 
overwhelmingly popular with the American people, from strengthening 
childcare and education to making healthcare more affordable for 
millions. And, crucially, it will include unprecedented steps to fight 
the climate crisis and preserve our planet for the next generation.
  After yet another summer marked by hurricanes, floods, and wildfires, 
we cannot hold off on taking action any longer. The world is looking to 
us for leadership on climate change. By achieving the emissions goals 
Democrats are laying out, we can reassert America's leadership.
  And through it all, we are going to make sure that this bill is paid 
for and that those at the very top finally pay their fair share.
  When this Senate majority began its work many months ago, our 
original task was to pass legislation that would get our country out of 
the depths of the COVID pandemic. Now, the legislation we will work on 
over the next 2 weeks will lay a new foundation for the future of our 
economy. It will restore the middle class in the 21st century and give 
many more Americans the opportunity to get there. Building ladders to 
middle class--that is what this is about, and that is what we are going 
to do.
  The next few weeks will be crucial to achieving this goal, and I look 
forward to working with my colleagues to continue to deliver on our 
promise of big, bold change for the American people.
  Of course, even as we work to deliver on our Build Back Better 
agenda, the House and Senate will also work on other important 
priorities that demand immediate attention, including passing a 
continuing resolution before the September 30 expiration of government 
funding, providing emergency funding to help those devastated by recent 
natural disasters, and helping resettle our Afghan allies and partners. 
I expect all of this to be done in a bipartisan and timely way.
  Of course, over the next few weeks, the House and Senate must also 
come together to address the debt ceiling. In America, when it is time 
to pay the bills, we follow through on our obligations, without 
exception. For a long time, addressing the debt ceiling was considered 
a routine and responsible step that both sides worked together to 
achieve. Even when President Trump was in office, Democrats worked 
three times with Republicans to suspend the debt ceiling because it was 
the right and obvious thing to do. We didn't pick excuses and say: Here 
is why we don't want to do it. We knew it was important and it was time 
to lay aside differences and move it forward.
  But now, unfortunately, some of our Republican colleagues--even 
though they were eager to have Democrats support them when President 
Trump was President--now some of our Republican colleagues are 
reportedly contemplating a reckless idea, spearheaded by the Republican 
Senator from Wisconsin, to oppose any effort to raise the debt ceiling 
whatsoever. And, unfortunately and sadly, the Republican leader seems 
to be going along.
  Let me be clear: taking the debt hostage and playing games with the 
full faith and credit of the United States is reckless, irresponsible, 
and will harm every single American. It is a complete nonstarter.
  This is not just another political debate. It is about honoring our 
unbroken commitment to pay our debts and avoid another financial crisis 
at a crucial moment for our country.
  Now it is important to remember that this is not about green-lighting 
future spending. This is about paying debt from past spending, which 
was incurred during the Trump administration and which received 
favorable votes from the majority of Republicans and Democrats.
  Indeed, it is a new study that came out. According to the nonpartisan 
Congressional Research Service, the Trump administration incurred $5.4 
trillion in new debt after the debt ceiling was raised in 2019, up 
through his last day of office. So all of the new $5 trillion in debt, 
bottom line, was caused under the Trump administration, not by 
Democratic spending--under the Trump administration, $5.4 trillion from 
the last day the debt ceiling was raised in 2019 to the last day of 
Trump being in office.
  Another report by the Treasury Department further states that, over 
the entirety of the Trump administration, that figure rose to as high 
as $8 trillion.
  Again, let me repeat this so my Republican colleagues hear it loud 
and clear. This is not about the Democrats incurring debt. Between the 
last time that the debt ceiling was raised in 2019 and the final day of 
the Trump administration--nothing to do with Biden or Democrats or 
anything in 2021--his administration added more than $5 trillion to the 
national debt; and over the 4 years of Donald Trump, new debt totaled 
as much as $8 trillion.
  So both sides--both sides--have a responsibility to pay our bills. 
Both sides, led by the Republican Senate, incurred much of this new 
debt. Senators from both parties voted overwhelmingly in support of the 
many laws that contributed to this obligation.
  In the middle of the COVID pandemic, the Congress came together under 
Donald Trump, when Donald Trump was President, to pass successive COVID 
relief laws, like the CARES Act, the PPP extension, and the ``908 COVID 
deal'' in December. Democrats and Republicans voted in huge numbers in 
support of these laws. Republicans voted to make these expenditures.
  Now we must come together to do the responsible thing and pay those 
bills. Leader McConnell assured the country in 2019, when Donald Trump 
was President, that we would ``no doubt [raise the debt ceiling] on a 
bipartisan basis.'' Again, that is what McConnell said when Trump was 
President: We will ``no doubt [raise the debt ceiling] on a bipartisan 
basis.'' He said, when Trump was President, failure to do so would be a 
``disaster.''
  Failure to do so now, Leader McConnell, is an equal disaster. It 
doesn't matter who is President. We still incurred the bills. So I 
believe it should be no different this time around.
  The United States has never, ever, defaulted on its debt. I can't 
imagine Republicans would want to be responsible for the first-ever 
default. We need to work together to raise the debt ceiling and avoid 
causing irreparable harm to our economy, still recovering from the 
devastation of the pandemic.
  I would say to the business community and the financial community, 
let Leader McConnell know, stop playing games with the debt ceiling.

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