[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 87 (Thursday, May 21, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2433-S2434]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             RECONCILIATION

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, Republicans still haven't released the 
text of their radical MAGA reconciliation wish list, just hours before 
we are expected to vote on it.
  Where the hell is the bill? Where the hell is the bill? We were 
supposed to get it yesterday before lunch--no bill. We were supposed to 
get it yesterday afternoon--no bill. We were supposed to get it before 
dinnertime--no bill. We were supposed to get it around midnight--still 
no bill. And now it is Thursday morning--still no bill.
  Why don't we have a bill? I will tell you why. The Republican Party 
is in complete disarray. They are in complete meltdown. They can't come 
to an agreement with each other. They are angry with each other.
  Why? They are pulled between two poles, and they can't decide which 
way to go to. The first pole is the pole they should go to: Help the 
American people. Help the American people with higher costs, whether it 
is groceries or gasoline or housing or healthcare; work with Democrats 
to help get those costs down. That is where they should be. And they 
should also be with us when we want to end the chaos--the chaos on the 
streets of our cities--by having ICE and Border Patrol have reasonable 
guardrails so they don't kill Americans on the streets. And, of course, 
end the corruption. They should be angry, as we are, as the American 
people are, at the corruption that is coming out of the White House.
  So on the one pole is to work for the American people, but on the 
other pole is Donald Trump, who is exactly the opposite of what 
Americans want, and Republicans know it. Trump doesn't give a damn 
about costs. He has already said that. Pay more for gasoline? He says: 
I don't care. The American people can pay more for groceries, can pay 
more for housing. He doesn't care about that. He is a billionaire. He 
doesn't go shop for groceries. He doesn't go get gas at the pump.
  Chaos--he loves chaos. His Iran war is one of the most chaotic 
foreign misadventures America has ever gone on, and it gets worse all 
the time, as gas prices go above $4.50. I heard today it is above $4 in 
every State.
  And he is the originator--the chief cook and bottle washer--of 
corruption. He comes up with corrupt scheme after corrupt scheme to 
benefit himself, his family, his cronies, criminals whom he has 
encouraged to act criminally. He is the originator of the corruption.
  The ballroom. They have become ballroom Republicans, the Republican 
Senators.
  The MAGA slush fund to be given out to cronies--probably, a lot of it 
would end up in Trump's pocket or his kids' pockets. Your dollars, 
American taxpayers.
  So they are stuck. They are sort of like that cartoon, the old Popeye 
cartoon, where Olive Oyl is pulled in one direction by Popeye and the 
other by Bluto. She keeps going back and forth. That is who they are. 
They don't know what to do.

[[Page S2434]]

  And so there is no bill. That is why there is no bill. They are 
stuck. They are flummoxed.
  The leader, Leader Thune, has two choices: Side with Donald Trump and 
show the American people you are totally, totally out of touch with 
what they need, or side with the American people, work with us, and get 
Donald Trump furious at you. And you see what happens when Donald Trump 
is furious at Republicans. We could ask a couple of Senators what 
happens when they don't side with Donald Trump.
  So they are stuck. They are just stuck, and it is a spectacle that 
the American people are witnessing.
  And more and more Americans, every day, say the Republican Party--
many former Republicans say: The Republican Party I used to know was so 
different.
  It is so deranged by Donald Trump that they can't be with them 
anymore. And that is why we Democrats look like we are in good shape in 
the House and the Senate, as we move forward to November.
  Republicans--let's go over what they want in their bill. Republicans 
want to spend tens of billions of American tax dollars, but we still 
don't know what exactly we are voting on in mere hours. We do know that 
this bill won't include a single penny to make life more affordable--
the costs issue, which is No. 1 in the eyes of the American people.
  The American people don't need to see the bill text to know where 
Senate Republicans stand: with Donald Trump, right now, not working 
families.
  I am pleased a small number of Republicans are starting to wake up to 
how egregious Trump's billion-dollar, taxpayer-funded ballroom is, but 
this MAGA majority has made it abundantly clear they are willing and 
eager to fund Trump's vanity project at the taxpayers' expense.
  Make no mistake, if ballroom funding doesn't make it into the 
Republican bill, it is not because of a Republican conscience; it is 
because Democrats stopped them. They tried to sneak it in. They were 
caught redhanded.
  Oh, it is only for security. It is only for this. It is only for 
that.
  They are stuck. No one wants the ballroom except Donald Trump, and 
they are quaking in their boots to oppose him. And when they oppose 
him, they are worried about electoral consequences, as we have seen in 
the last week.
  Were it not for Democrats fighting this ballroom every step of the 
way, Republicans would have wasted a billion taxpayer dollars for 
Trump's palace in a heartbeat. Republicans are foolish if they think 
that they can distance themselves from this boondoggle, because, no 
matter what is in the bill, Democrats will force Republicans to vote 
again and again on their outrageous priorities: Trump's ballroom, 
Trump's insurrectionist slush fund, Trump's costly war.
  Americans don't want this bill, even without Trump's vanity project--
not when it provides $70 billion to Trump's masked agents who sow chaos 
in the streets. It is absurd. It is absurd to ask Americans, who are 
struggling to make ends meet, to shell out another $70 billion to ICE 
and Border Patrol when these rogue Agencies are sitting on $100 billion 
from the Big Beautiful Bill.
  But the costs of this war, which the American people are opposed to, 
and the costs of many other things might have to be funded out of this 
in the next few months, and so they don't want to take the money for 
ICE or for Border Patrol when there is $100 billion sitting there. 
Instead, they hold up the budget. Instead, they tell Democrats there is 
no reform. They tell that to the American people as well.
  As Americans burn through their savings, Republicans want to expand 
their nest egg for Trump's private militia. Every vote and every 
amendment we bring to the floor today will show that Democrats are 
standing up for the American people and Republicans are selling out to 
Trump. Again, the contrast is glaring: Who is on the side of the 
American people for lower costs and for less chaos and to end the 
corruption? And who is on the side of Donald Trump, master of 
corruption, originator of corruption in certain new, novel, and 
disgusting ways, as well as somebody who doesn't give a damn about the 
costs that the American people are suffering through?
  On the slush fund, Donald Trump's nearly $2 billion MAGA slush fund 
is the most blatant act of corruption in American history. People are 
aghast. Jaws drop all over the Nation when they hear what Trump wants 
to do: sue the government for $10 billion--that is him personally 
suing--then settle with himself and use that money for his cronies and 
Lord knows what else. As I said, I believe a lot of it will end up in 
the pockets of Trump, his family, his cronies.
  Trump sues Trump. Trump settles with Trump. Trump decides which Trump 
allies get paid. It is absolutely depraved.
  It turns out that ``The Art of the Deal'' isn't very hard when you 
are making a deal with yourself and forcing Americans to foot the bill. 
Let's see what his next book says about that one.
  Trump acted as the plaintiff, defendant, and judge, all at once, to 
set up this slush fund. And while Trump was at it, he shielded his 
family from ever having to face a tax audit again.
  Can you believe this, America? In this bill, Trump can never be 
prosecuted, investigated for tax fraud, even though I and so many 
others wouldn't trust him with his tax returns for a minute.
  Trump doesn't have to pay his taxes, but he is more than happy to put 
your tax dollars in the pockets of his cronies, criminals, and cop-
killing January 6 insurrectionists.
  Republicans are going to have to vote on that. Are you going to 
prevent any of this money from going to people who hurt cops, who were 
prosecuted for hurting cops? Trump's own Attorney General, Pam Bondi, 
instituted a rule last year explicitly prohibiting these types of 
corrupt payments, and Democrats will not let Trump get away with this 
grift--this grift of epic proportion.
  That is why the very first amendment I will offer during vote-arama 
will be to block this slush fund--all of it. Republicans will have to 
answer on my amendment: Are they for the slush fund or are they against 
it? Do Republicans want to lower Americans' costs or sell them out to 
give payments to violent criminals? Do Republicans stand with the 
American people or with Donald Trump?
  Americans want to know. Democrats will force Republicans to answer.

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