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Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, tonight, the President of the United States comes before Congress to deliver his State of the Union address to the American people. It is a chance for the Commander in Chief to tell the story of where our country stands today, to hear about the sacrifices we have made as a country, about the challenges we have overcome, and about the kind of future we can achieve if we work together.

America has suffered immense challenge in recent years. When President Biden took office, over 3,000 Americans were dying of COVID a day; over 18 million Americans were on unemployment; our democracy was wounded, damaged, and battered after January 6; and inflation climbed to suffocating heights.

But today, President Biden will make clear that after so much adversity, America's economy is growing, inflation is slowing, and Democrats' agenda is delivering. Our economy has added a record 15 million new jobs--15 million new jobs--since President Biden took office, the greatest turnaround of any President. Last year alone, the economy created more jobs than in any year of the Trump administration.

Less than 2 years ago, inflation was at a crushing 9 percent. But today, it has cooled to the lowest level since the start of the pandemic; and that means that over the last year, the prices of things like milk, eggs, appliances, car rentals, and airfare have all come down.

Across the country, manufacturing and job creation is surging. Communities that have been long overlooked, especially in places like Upstate New York, are getting a second chance. It didn't happen on its own. It is the result of the Democratic agenda; a result of legislation like the American Rescue Plan, Infrastructure, CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act, which I was happy to champion in a Democratic Senate as I was majority leader.

But statics and data tell only part of the story. Today, I am honored to welcome five inspiring New Yorkers and one brave Ukrainian soldier as my guests for the State of the Union. These six individuals show better than any statistic how America is made stronger by the policies of the Biden administration and a Democratic Senate.

You can look at the example of Andrii Chevozorov, a 25-year-old Ukrainian soldier who has risked his life and limb on the battlefield. After losing his leg in a mine explosion, he came to New York in January for prosthetics and rehabilitation treatment at Staten Island University Hospital.

It is an honor to welcome Andrii, and the Senate thanks him for his sacrifice. He reminds us all about the stakes of the war in Ukraine, of the importance of passing the supplemental. And I will continue working as hard as I can to make sure we get it done. It is a historic moment for America. We cannot turn our back on Ukraine and our other allies and the menaces that we face in the world.

You can also get a look at what is at stake through the story of Kate Farley of Hudson Valley, who is expecting her second child through in vitro fertilization. Without IVF, Kate could have never gotten pregnant. And it is both heartbreaking and enraging that extreme Republicans have made people like Kate worry this vital service will be curtailed. I am honored to welcome her today.

I am also honored to invite my friend Kevin McCaffrey of Suffolk County, the proud president of Teamsters Local 707, as well as Deborah Hartman, a retired UFCW member who used to work at Tops supermarket.

Kevin, of course, is the Republican leader of the Suffolk County legislature, but it didn't stop him and I to work to deal with the pensions that members of his local, Local 707, might have lost. Like many Americans, both Kevin and Deborah and their fellow workers faced the unthinkable prospect of their pensions drying up just a few years ago. Some workers had pensions cut by as much as two-thirds. People who put in money every 2 weeks, hoping, knowing, relying on the fact that their retirement would be secure--it wouldn't make them rich, but would make them secure--saw the rug pulled out from under them. And with Kevin from one end of my State and Deborah from the other, we were able to save those pensions. Republicans refused to offer relief. Democrats had to do it on its own.

Thanks to the reforms in the American Rescue Plan, millions of our union brothers and sisters across New York and America have seen that critical pension relief. These workers who have saved their whole lives to retire with dignity have seen their dignity restored, something all Americans can be very proud of.

I am also proud of New Yorkers like Van Robinson, who I have known for decades and have partnered with to combat gun violence, increase affordable housing, and reduce lead poisoning for underserved communities. Van has been one of the leading voices reconnecting communities divided by highways and for tearing down I-81 in Syracuse; and thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure law that I led in Congress, we are getting it done.

Finally, I am delighted to welcome Kim Spica, an equipment Engineer Technician at GlobalFoundries. Kim's story shows what the future can look like for so many New Yorkers. She got her job after finishing a registered apprenticeship program at Hudson Valley Community College.

Recently, GlobalFoundries received the largest preliminary award from the CHIPS and Science Act to date: over $1.5 billion, which will help them build a second chip fab for New York's capital region and create thousands of good-paying jobs like Kim's.

I was proud to lead the way on CHIPS and Science because I knew what it would mean for New Yorkers like Kim in the form of new jobs, greater opportunity, and a more decent life.

So if you want to see how far we have come as a country, these New Yorkers are a good illustration. These guests are the reason our Democratic majority fought so hard to pass the American Rescue Plan, pass infrastructure, pass CHIPS and Science, and pass the Inflation Reduction Act. I knew it would make an enormous difference for New Yorkers like the people who are joining me tonight.

Democrats' agenda, of course, is paying off in other ways. Americans are paying less for insulin. Prescription drugs for seniors on Medicare have been capped. Student loan borrowers have seen hundreds of millions of debt forgiveness.

So, tonight, the difference between the parties will be as clear as night and day. Democrats are focused on lowering costs, creating jobs, and putting money in people's pockets, but the hard right, which too often runs the Republican Party in the House and now increasingly in the Senate, is consumed by chaos, bullying, and attacking things like women's freedom of choice.

The Republican front runner for President has made it abundantly clear that he is not running to make people's lives better but, rather, on airing his personal political grievances. Donald Trump's cynical power grab even destroyed the best change at border security that Congress has seen in decades--a bill that even a Wall Street Journal poll from this morning shows that Americans clearly supported. Americans wanted bipartisan border security. Congress had bipartisan security ready to go, and Donald Trump and his MAGA Republican followers are at fault for killing it in its tracks. That is shameful cynicism that once again hurts Americans.

Ideologues cannot run the show here. We have to fight these things.

So I thank President Biden for his leadership. The road hasn't been easy. The work is not yet done. But we have come far. We have overcome so much. And there is still so much on the line for American families, American values, and America's future. It is imperative we stay the course and finish the job we began 3 years ago.

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