In remarks on the Senate floor Friday, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) spoke about why he was supporting the bill to avoid a government shutdown.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Before we finish today, I would like to say that soon the Senate will vote on a bipartisan
00:06piece of legislation that will make an important D.C. funding fix.
00:11This legislation will make sure that we take care of the residents of the District.
00:15It will support law enforcement and firefighters and teachers and city services.
00:20The legislation is very good news for the residents of the District of Columbia.
00:24I'm happy we're passing the bill today.
00:26I thank my colleagues for working quickly to bring this bill to the floor.
00:30Once the Senate acts, we urge the House to act quickly.
00:33Now, government funding expires at midnight tonight, and the votes before us is a Hobson
00:40choice.
00:41The CR bill is a bad bill, but as bad as the CR is, I believe that allowing Donald Trump
00:47to take even more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option.
00:54A shutdown would allow DOJ to shift into overdrive.
00:58It would give Donald Trump and DOJ the keys to the city, the state, and country.
01:05And that is a far worse alternative.
01:07Now, I want to remind everyone that it was Republicans who pushed this false shutdown
01:12choice.
01:13Their inability to govern has led us to this precipice.
01:18Our caucus members have two bad choices.
01:21Republican Senators will come down on different sides of the question, but that does not mean
01:25that any Senate Democrat supports a shutdown.
01:29Whatever the outcome, our caucus will be united in our determination to continue the long-term
01:35fight to stop Donald Trump's dangerous war on our democracy and on America's working
01:40families.
01:41And now I want to be clear about what this bill does and does not do.
01:45The full-year CR is a law that sets funding levels for the full year.
01:50And the president and executive branch have a legal and constitutional duty to faithfully
01:55execute the CR.
01:58The CR does not change the underlying law making the Trump administration's impoundments
02:03and mass firings illegal.
02:06This is true as a matter of law.
02:09Nothing in the CR changes the Impoundment Control Act, the foundation of Congress's
02:14Appropriations Authority, and the authorization laws that require USAID and other agencies
02:20to exist and to operate the programs Congress has assigned to them.
02:25Nothing changes Title V, governing the Civil Service, the Administrative Procedure Act,
02:30and so on.
02:32One of the reasons I'm voting for cloture is for the very reason that these actions
02:36are illegal and no new law is needed to declare that.
02:40I yield the floor.