Chuck Schumer: “there are a number of outstanding matters before the Senate that must be addressed by January 19. We must pass an…”

“there are a number of outstanding matters before the Senate that must be addressed by January 19. We must pass an extension of government funding. We must reach a deal to lift the spending caps to spare devastating cuts to our military support and funding for urgent domestic priorities. We must extend the Children's Health Insurance Program and community health centers and the 702 FISA Court program. We must pass disaster aid, and we must resolve the future of the Dreamers. Some of these issues, particularly CHIP and FISA, could have been dealt with by the majority a long time ago. There are bipartisan majorities that would have voted to extend those programs, but the majority leader chose not to put them on the floor because they were busy pursuing a partisan ``favor the wealthy'' tax bill. Some of these issues still require further compromise. It is no secret that we haven't come to final agreement on the spending caps. Both Democrats and Republicans want our troops to have the resources they need to do the tough job we ask of them. At the same time, we Democrats want to make sure that we are making the right kinds of investments in the middle class. The whole campaign was about the middle class, and now we are going to abandon them because there are such needs for defense. The two are not mutually exclusive.…”