TRANSCRIPT: Leader Schumer Remarks Following Meeting With President Trump And Congressional Leaders On The Need For Bipartisan Negotiations To Avert A Shutdown And Protect[...]

Washington, D.C. - Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke outside the White House following a meeting with President Trump and Congressional Leaders on the need for bipartisan negotiations to avert a government shutdown and for Republicans to join Democrats in protecting affordable healthcare for American families. Below are Senator Schumer's remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Leader Schumer: We met with the president for the first time since all of these issues started, even though we have requested repeated meetings with Leader Thune, Speaker Johnson and the president. We had very large differences on healthcare and on their ability to undo whatever budget we agreed to through rescissions and through impoundment, as well as pocket rescissions. And I think for the first time, the president heard our objections and heard why we needed a bipartisan bill. Their bill has not one iota of Democratic input. That is never how we've done this before. When I was Leader, we negotiated four times with Republicans and we never had a shutdown. And so it's up to the Republicans whether they want a shutdown or not. We've made to the president some proposals, Republican leaders will have to talk to them about them. But ultimately, he's the decision maker. And if he will accept some of the things we asked, which we think the American people are for on healthcare and on rescissions, he can avoid a shutdown. But there are still large differences between us.

[…]

We laid out to the president some of the consequences of what's happening in healthcare and by his face and by the way he looked, I think he heard about them for the first time, closing of rural hospitals, the fact that so many clinics are closing, and I don't know if he knew this before, but the fact that people will pay $400 more a month, close to $5,000 more a year on their healthcare premiums if we don't do anything and people don't know what to do. The average working family can't afford that. I told him how I met a mother who was crying to me because her daughter has cancer, and what has happened with healthcare, with what they have done, she's going to watch her daughter suffer and maybe die. And so he seemed to understand for the first time, understand the magnitude of this crisis. And we hope he'll talk to the Republican leaders and tell them we need bipartisan input on healthcare, on rescissions into their bill. Their bill does not have these. They never talk to us. Thune didn't negotiate with me. Johnson didn't negotiate with Hakeem. And on the key issues, the Appropriations Committee, which he's talked about, three of the smaller bills, they're good bills. They said the appropriators couldn't agree and said, kick it up to the four leaders. They still haven't talked.

###