[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 210 (Wednesday, December 20, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6072-S6073]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         SENATE ACCOMPLISHMENTS

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, the first year of the 118th Congress has 
come to a close. It is time to look ahead to the many challenges we 
face in the year ahead. But never in recent memory has the contrast 
between the two parties been more obvious than in the past 3 years.
  Under Democratic majority leaders, we saw the most productive 
Congress in modern history, but under a Republican House majority this 
year, we saw a year marked by chaos, extremism, and paralysis. There is 
no question that divided government and MAGA extremism made legislating 
in 2023 very difficult. For much of the year, it was as if Donald Trump 
himself were running the show over in the House, making it exceedingly 
hard to get anything done.
  But in a difficult year, Democrats did not abandon our promise to 
work to make life better for the American people. This year, Democrats 
protected the historic wins we have gotten done in the 117th Congress: 
climate change, prescription drug reform, CHIPS and Science, and so 
much more.
  And I would remind the country that all but one of these major bills 
we passed and led in the Senate was done with bipartisan support. You 
need bipartisanship to get so much done, but we protected those 
historic wins.
  Second, we worked all year to implement those wins effectively: new 
infrastructure projects, new factories, new good-paying jobs. Across 
the country, manufacturing and job creation is surging; communities 
long overlooked are getting a second chance; seniors will be paying 
less for healthcare and prescription drugs; rural people will be able 
to get broadband--internet service--for the first time. After years of 
high costs, inflation has dramatically slowed down in the year since we 
passed the Inflation Reduction Act. We have protected; we have 
implemented; and the third word is ``prevented.''
  Even with the MAGA Republican rightwing majority running so much of 
the House, we prevented the worst things from happening. We prevented 
the country from defaulting, which would have been a disaster. We 
prevented, in both September and November, the government from shutting 
down. In each case, the keyword was ``bipartisanship.'' We can't do any 
of these things without both parties cooperating. I urge Speaker 
Johnson to understand that as we approach the January 19 deadline. 
Without bipartisanship, we will not get anything done, and embracing 
the hard-right philosophy is a path to nowhere for not only the 
Republican Party but for the House and the country.
  Finally, in a difficult year, Democrats persevered. We protected, we 
implemented, we prevented, and we persevered. We persevered at every 
turn to work, to get things done. We began our critical work on 
artificial intelligence. We pushed to outcompete the Chinese Government 
even as we added more historic and diverse judges to the Federal bench.
  This work will continue next year. There will be no easing into 2024; 
we will hit the ground running. There is a lot we must do. We must not 
only pass the supplemental and finish the job of properly funding our 
Federal Government, but we have made large progress in a bipartisan way 
on new parts of our agenda: insulin reform, getting everybody to pay no 
more than $35 a month; artificial intelligence, where the bipartisan 
Gang of 4 held some very, very elucidating insight forums, and now we 
are ready to start looking at legislation; outcompeting the Chinese 
Government; passing SAFE Banking and cannabis reform; getting something 
done on railway safety, on online child privacy, and so much more.
  In each of these, we have laid some groundwork with bipartisan 
support. It won't be easy, but we want to get these things done in 
2024. The only way, though, we will get them done--just like with the 
supplemental, just like with the government shutdown--is through 
bipartisan cooperation. It was the very first thing I said at the 
beginning of this Congress. Bipartisanship is essential in divided 
government. We saw that play out all year long. Only through 
bipartisanship were we able to avoid a catastrophic default, avoid a 
shutdown, and make any progress on appropriations or anything of 
import.
  We also saw what happens when one party--particularly in the House; 
not so much in the Senate--refuses to embrace bipartisanship. The 
unproductive and dysfunctional House majority is the most unproductive 
and dysfunctional in modern history. What happened in the House because 
of that dysfunctional majority can be boiled down to three words: 
chaos, extremism, paralysis.
  Donald Trump may not be in office, but his influence drove 
practically every major decision for the House Republicans, at great 
cost to our country. We saw MAGA extremists take the debt ceiling 
hostage to push an agenda that would have crashed the economy, raised 
costs, and killed millions of jobs. We saw MAGA extremists hijack the 
appropriations process by adding poison pills, restricting a woman's 
right to choose, and so much else. We even saw MAGA extremists bring 
all of Congress to a grinding halt for more than a month by expelling 
their own Speaker even as crises raged in Europe and Middle East--
shameful.
  Unfortunately, the dark cloud of Donald Trump hovers, looms over 
Senate and House Republicans, and it is something I hope they will 
resist because he is no good for the country, no good for their party.
  MAGA Republicans are incapable of governing, plain and simple. 
Americans will not forget that when they head to the polls next year.
  In conclusion, as we look to a new year, I urge my colleagues on both 
sides of the aisle to work together. I urge my colleagues on the other 
side of the aisle to resist MAGA extremism that led their side to so 
much catastrophe. I urge Speaker Johnson not to let the 30 or so hard-
right extremists keep running the show in the House, as they did for 
too much of this year.
  It is not going to get any easier. The challenges we face remain 
great. But it is my hope--my earnest and fervent hope because I love 
this country; I love

[[Page S6073]]

this country--that the experience of this year shows our colleagues on 
the other side that embracing MAGA is a recipe for failure.
  There will be a lot at stake when we return in 2024. If we embrace 
bipartisanship, I am confident we will succeed.
  I yield the floor.

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