[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 184 (Wednesday, October 20, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S7094]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           BUILD BACK BETTER

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, now on another matter, BBB, Build Back 
Better, even as we work to push legislation in defense of our 
democracy, Senate Democrats are also making good progress on reaching 
an agreement on President Biden's Build Back Better plan.
  Yesterday, Senate Democrats had a very spirited and very positive 
caucus lunch to go over the latest outstanding items before we can all 
reach a deal. We walked out of that lunch united in our desire to reach 
an agreement this week. I believe we can get it done, and I want to 
thank all my colleagues for their leadership, diligence, and focus on 
reaching an end result. We are going to keep talking to each other all 
week long until we get the job done.
  Later this morning, I will speak again with the Speaker and with the 
White House to go over the latest details of the President's proposal. 
I have spoken to the President just about every day and Speaker Pelosi 
several times a day about these issues. I will continue meeting with my 
caucus to try and keep us all on the same page because be on the same 
page we must. Everyone is going to have to compromise if we are going 
to find that legislative sweet spot we can all get behind.
  Nobody will get everything they want, but no matter what, our final 
proposal will deliver the core promise we made to the American people: 
We will take bold action against the climate crisis while creating 
millions of new, good-paying jobs; we will expand economic opportunity 
and lower costs for working Americans; and we will cut taxes for 
working and middle-class Americans while asking the wealthy to pay 
their fair share. In short, we will deliver on a bill that dramatically 
improves the lives of millions and millions and millions of American 
families.
  We are getting closer to an agreement. We want to finalize a deal by 
the end of this week, but we all must keep moving together.

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