Leader Schumer Floor Remarks Denouncing Senate Republicans’ Reconciliation Bill That Spends $1 Billion Of Taxpayer Money On Trump’s Gilded Ballroom Without Addressing The[...]

Washington, D.C. - Today, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) spoke on the Senate floor denouncing Senate Republicans' $72 billion reconciliation bill that would waste taxpayer money on Donald Trump's gilded ballroom and pump billions more into ICE and Border Patrol without any guardrails, all while allocating zero dollars to help Americans with rising costs. Below are Senator Schumer's remarks, which can also be viewed here:

If you want to understand Republicans' priorities right now, just look at the $72 billion reconciliation bill they revealed last week.

The Republican bill would pump tens of billions of dollars into ICE and Border Patrol without any guardrails to prevent these rogue agencies from continuing to unleash violence on American streets.

But that's not all. To add insult to injury, the Republican bill charges American taxpayers $1 billion to build Trump's gilded ballroom, while including zero dollars to help Americans with rising costs.

Their billion dollar bill has zero dollars to help Americans deal with groceries and their prices going up, gas prices going up, zero dollars to bring down Americans' health care, housing, and electricity bills.

At a time when Americans are struggling to put food on the table, Republicans say "let them eat cake" and demand American taxpayers build Trump a palace while they're at it.

Keep in mind, Donald Trump said just a few months ago that, "not one penny is being used from the federal government" for the ballroom. Not one penny, said Trump.

Well, give me a break. He's put a billion dollars in the budget for it.

This staggering waste of taxpayer dollars has nothing, nothing to do with security and everything to do with Trump's ego.

How long before Trump asks for his name to be emblazoned in gold on the side of the ballroom?

The American people are calling out for help, but these Ballroom Republicans have a constituency of one: Donald Trump's ego.

That is a disgrace.

Democrats will use every tool in our arsenal to fight this bill.

We will bring challenges under the Byrd Rule. We will offer floor amendments. We will force Republicans to take vote after vote showing that instead of helping working families, Republicans are forcing Americans to pay for Trump's billionaire ballroom.

Americans don't want this ballroom blitz - they want Congress to bring down costs.

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