Leader Schumer Floor Remarks Calling On President Trump And Republicans To Fund SNAP Benefits And Negotiate With Democrats To Address The Impending Healthcare Crisis And Reopen[...]

Washington, D.C. - Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor urging Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans to come to the table and negotiate to fund SNAP benefits, lower healthcare costs, fix the ACA premium crisis, and reopen the government. Below are Senator Schumer's remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Open enrollment is now just four days away, and Republicans do not even want to talk about fixing healthcare.

Americans are on the brink of a healthcare crisis unlike any we have seen in our lifetimes. Never before have we been in a situation where more than twenty million Americans could see their insurance premiums more than double on average in the blink of an eye. And that's just the average, because for many people it's much worse.

Yesterday, the state of New Jersey also announced that the average New Jersey family will see premium hikes of one hundred and seventy-five percent - one hundred and seventy-five percent. In Upstate New York, the average family with a plan costing $280 a month today is about to pay $1,700 a month for the same plan next year - a five hundred percent hike. And that starts this Saturday with open enrollment. This crisis will be felt in every community and by nearly every single household, red, blue, purple, and everything in between.

So tonight, Senate Democrats will come to the floor and warn our Republican colleagues and the nation of the devastation Republicans are causing by doing nothing - nothing - on healthcare. We will highlight the impacts of surging premiums on families. We will share the stories we are hearing right now from people scared of premium hikes. I thank my colleagues for coming to the floor and speaking on this urgent issue.

We are in a healthcare crisis, and Republicans don't even want to talk about how to fix it. The president isn't even in town as Americans are about to be devastated by the bills they'll receive on healthcare. The president is on the other side of the world, instead of being here in Washington working with Congress to lower healthcare premiums.

When the president is in town, what is he focused on? Instead of being focused on fixing healthcare, Donald Trump is sending $40 billion to Argentina, spending $300 million on his ballroom, and giving Kristi Noem $170 million for two big, private, luxury jets.

Meanwhile, millions of hungry kids and working families are about to lose SNAP benefits to buy food, because Donald Trump has ordered the Department of Agriculture to rip up its own contingency plan. Isn't that a disgrace? He is using hungry kids, hungry parents, and hungry veterans as hostages. It's cruel.

Let's be clear about the facts. There is somewhere around five billion dollars in emergency funds that could be used right now to ensure parents and kids don't go hungry when SNAP runs out this Saturday. The USDA said weeks ago that contingency funds were "available to fund participant benefits." That's the U.S. Department of Agriculture - Trump's own cabinet position. But now they have reversed course and literally wiped their plan from their own website, because Donald Trump has ordered them not to use this funding.

Donald Trump should reverse course immediately and allow these emergency funds to go through, to spare working families from hunger and needless suffering. What the administration is doing - ordering USDA not to use emergency funds to keep SNAP afloat - is an act of cruelty. The same administration that gifted Argentina a $40 billion bailout and cut taxes for billionaires by a trillion dollars is now telling hungry kids "you're on your own."

And what about Republicans in Congress? Today, Leader Thune will force yet another vote on a Republican CR that has zero bipartisan input - it's a partisan bill - and most importantly does nothing to solve the ACA crisis.

Just now here on the floor, the Republican Leader seemed perplexed about what precisely it is that Democrats are pushing for. He knows damn well what Democrats want - it's the very same thing that a vast majority of Americans want, including nearly 60% of MAGA voters.

We want to lower healthcare costs, now. We want to solve the ACA premium crisis, now. Open enrollment is just days away. We want lower costs, better healthcare, and to reopen the government. Let me repeat again what Democrats want, so the Republican Leader can hear it: we want to lower healthcare costs, fix the ACA premium crisis, and reopen the government.

We Democrats have been calling on Republican leaders to sit down with us and negotiate and address this crisis since the summer. But even now, Leader Thune insists we should fix ACA premiums later, not right away. This is not good enough for the American people, because Americans know when it comes to healthcare, when Republicans say "later," they mean "never."

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives has become a ghost town. It has been 39 days since members of Congress have shown up for work. We all know what's going on here: Speaker Johnson is simply afraid to bring the House back because the minute he does, a good number of House Republicans will start saying exactly what many of us are calling for - that we need to address this ACA premium crisis as soon as we can. The Speaker is so afraid of exposing the divisions within his own conference that he has unilaterally shut down one half of the legislative branch of government.

So, to sum it all up, we are just days away from a healthcare crisis unlike any we've ever seen, and Republicans from the Senate to the House to the White House are dithering about.

Republicans are the party in charge. They hold the White House and both chambers in Congress. Americans know that. They know the onus is on the majority party to govern, and to work with the other side to get things done. But today, Americans look at this Republican party and see a majority refusing to do its job. It is thus no surprise that Americans primarily hold Republicans responsible for this disastrous shutdown.

So I will say it once again: Republicans need to get serious about ending this shutdown and ending the ACA crisis that has now become a reality for millions of people. They need to get serious. If Donald Trump continues to ignore the ticking time bomb that is ACA premiums, the American people will hold him responsible when disaster strikes.

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