Chuck Schumer

I ask my colleague, is it true that we have had debates in the committee in the committee room while important discussions have been carried on here in other instances? Is that true or false?

I applaud Senators Toomey and Portman for their leadership on this legislation and I hope we can move it very soon.

The CARA bill, which was passed out of the Judiciary Committee--I am a cosponsor--is a good bill.

We all know this is now a crisis. It is an epidemic, and we had better get our hands on it quickly.

But we have a shortage of counselors right now. That is my point.

The bottom line is, we need dollars. Sequestration, which my colleagues on the other side of the aisle supported, cut the money available to fight this scourge.

Establishing a lock-in program in Medicare is also supported by President Obama as it was proposed in the Administration's budget proposal.

The drug dealers, these evil people, these bottom crawlers, realize that they can get kids to take heroin if they cannot afford the Vicodin or the OxyContin.

We should not -- we should not accept any more nominees to the Supreme Court from George W. Bush as long as he is president, except in extraordinary circumstances.

I hope that you and the FOMC will look at growth in wages--it may not be the only issue, for sure, but it is a very important issue.

I am concerned that further movement by the Fed to raise rates in the near term could snuff out the embers of real wage growth before they are even given a chance to catch fire.

If you believe that the flattening and decline of wages is the number one problem our economy faces, that it is harder to stay in the middle class, it is harder to get to the middle class than it has been in a very long time, you make that…

The private sector is not going to fight zika, and cutting CDC, cutting all the agencies, FDA, makes no sense.

We would be robbing Peter to pay Paul. We would be making ourselves less safe against Ebola to make us safer with zika.

I am going to plead with them not to just talk the talk, but walk the walk. You cannot combat these crises, whether it is zika or opioids or mental health or security in our country, without a lean, effective government.

I think you are a superlative Secretary. I have seen a lot of them in the many years I have been around here, and nobody has a greater grip on what is going on, understands the policies, understands the practicalities, and is able to get…

We need bankruptcy as number one, and Senator Hatch has been trying to be very, very helpful on this.

We all know it will come here if it is there.

We will not get a deal on international tax reform this year or forever without pairing it with some significant degree of investment.

There is common ground. I remain at the table ready to work.

That increase in revenues also means lost jobs here, and it should be a warning signal, a shot across the bow to us.

First, American multinational companies should pay the taxes they owe. Right now, our companies making profits overseas can keep that money stashed offshore, avoid taxation altogether. That is unacceptable.

We cannot wait a year to deal with this.

Second, we have to protect American jobs and the future of our Nation's economy.

I strongly believe that the Social Security Administration should seek and incorporate community input before changing the local services that so many of our seniors and disabled rely on.