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[Pages S2659-S2660]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SENATE LEGISLATIVE AGENDA
Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, let me now talk about something
related--the legislative graveyard.
Leader McConnell says: Let's move on and work together. There hasn't
been a single bill put on the floor on issues we can debate, whether it
is protecting preexisting conditions, making our education system
better, dealing with the problem of the high cost of drugs, doing
infrastructure--nothing. Just appointments have been put on the floor.
And nothing has been done on election security at the very minimum.
I know the leader is afraid to debate what happened and explore what
happened given the tawdry history of certainly President Trump and of
Senate Republicans in responding to this serious issue, but at least he
could move forward and we could put some bills on the floor and debate
them to strengthen our election security, which everyone admits is
weak.
So if Leader McConnell, as he says, is ready to move on to serious
things, then how about bringing forward legislation to protect our
elections? For 4 months, the Senate has been little more than a
legislative graveyard, and election security is exhibit A.
The House passed important reforms to improve and safeguard our
elections. No action here in the Senate. We have a bipartisan election
security bill waiting in committee. No movement from the leader.
[[Page S2660]]
As long as this place remains a legislative graveyard, we are rolling
out the welcome mat for foreign adversaries--not just Russia but Iran,
Turkey, North Korea, China--to interfere in our elections. We are
essentially encouraging a sequel to 2016 because the leader is sitting
on his hands, because the leader is presiding over a legislative
graveyard on election security and just about everything else. What
about bipartisan background checks? What about paycheck fairness? What
about election reform? What about even the Violence Against Women Act,
which passed the House with 33 Republicans? None of those are being put
on the floor so that we can act and debate.
Later this morning, my friend Senator Udall will come here to the
floor to press our Republican friends to take up this bill and shed
light on the fact that it includes long-overdue reforms to protect
Native American women. The House is moving on legislation this week to
protect our healthcare law and protections for Americans with
preexisting conditions from the administration's efforts to destroy
those protections. There is no reason for Leader McConnell, who says he
wants to move on, to let these bills collect dust in the Senate. Even
if he doesn't love every particular in these bills, why not bring them
to the floor to debate and amend? Surely, we could find a way to agree
on issues. Ninety, ninety-five percent of Americans agree on every one
of these. But the Republican Party and Leader McConnell are so in the
grasp of powerful special interests and lobbyists from the hard right
that they are afraid to move any of this.
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