00:00Well, Mr. President, for two years, Democrats fought fiercely to protect the interests of
00:07the American people, while Senate Republicans fought tooth and nail to shield Donald Trump.
00:14We all knew how disastrous this president would be.
00:18We set out to expose how Trump and his party were hurting the American people.
00:23And we would do everything we could to stop them.
00:30We fought to lower the skyrocketing costs of Trump's economy, the cost of food, the cost
00:35of housing, the cost of energy, the cost of groceries, the cost of gasoline.
00:40Republicans pushed policies to drive those costs up.
00:44We exposed Trump for his unprecedented corruption.
00:48Republicans aided and abetted his grifts every step of the way.
00:53We worked relentlessly to control Trump's chaos that we see every day.
00:59Republicans encouraged him as he spiraled out of control.
01:04Later today, I'll talk more about how Senate Democrats have worked together to block the
01:10worst of Trump's the worst Trump's GOP had to throw at the American people.
01:18Now, of course, there's still a lot of work remaining to see America through the storm.
01:24This America, this administration has unleashed.
01:28But Senate Democrats are well positioned to stand up for the American people with the same
01:33devotion, cooperation and discipline we showed these past two years.
01:38Now, on the weak Dick Data Center bill.
01:42The only thing that came out of Trump's big AI summit yesterday was a photo op.
01:47No federal guardrails to protect against catastrophic risk.
01:51No signal from Trump that he plans to act.
01:55All Trump had to say was, quote, there should be tremendous self-regulation.
02:01Relying on self-regulation is how we got into this mess.
02:05Americans are calling for real solutions, real guardrails, real solutions on AI.
02:11Republicans' toothless data center bill completely misses the mark.
02:15Senate Republicans would do nothing to require data center companies to pay for their rising
02:23costs to the surrounding communities.
02:25Senate Democrats want to make it mandatory for data centers to cover their own costs by law,
02:31not by suggestion or hope or whim.
02:35This bill doesn't do anything to mandate safety standards for AI.
02:41Democrats would require safety standards to protect the American people.
02:45A guardrail without teeth isn't a guardrail.
02:49The Republicans' legislation doesn't even apply to all data centers.
02:54This shoddy bill couldn't get any flimsier.
02:57And that's because the Republicans really don't want to do it.
03:00They don't want to oppose some of the big interests that don't want any regulation.
03:08To put it simply, Republicans' data center bill follows Trump's lead in ignoring Americans'
03:15pressing concerns about AI, while our legislation would actually address them with guardrails
03:21that have real teeth.
03:23Americans don't want another hollowed messaging bill.
03:25They don't want to watch Senate Republicans give themselves a pat on their back when they've
03:29accomplished nothing.
03:31Americans want to see this Republican majority put the country first once and for all.
03:36Senate Republicans think even listening to the American people ought to be optional,
03:41too.
03:42I urge my colleagues to join us in taking real action on AI.
03:47I urge Republicans to put aside their feeble bill and put Americans over party.
03:53And on stock trade, only Senate Republicans would dare call a bill that permits members of
03:59Congress to continue to own, sell, and in some instances buy stocks, a stock trading
04:05ban.
04:06They can't be serious.
04:09The Republican bill is a permission slip for corruption, not a stock trading ban.
04:15There's been a real bipartisan effort to ban members of Congress from trading stocks and
04:20profiting off their insider information.
04:22I've supported those efforts for years.
04:25Last year, the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee advanced a strong bipartisan
04:30bill that would actually ban stocks, not pretend to do so.
04:35Senate Republicans didn't want it.
04:38The Senate GOP let their counterparts in the House take out all of the band's teeth and fill
04:43it with poison pills so it could never pass.
04:46Yes.
04:46This bill has no reform, no accountability, no substance.
04:51Republicans want to explicitly allow members to continue trading stocks in privately held
04:56companies, including in companies the members oversee, a formula for disaster and corruption.
05:04That's as clear a conflict of interest as one can imagine.
05:08Under the Republican bill, members would still get to own and sell stocks.
05:13And most importantly, this bill doesn't do anything, anything to stop Donald Trump from
05:19trading stocks.
05:21I guess Republicans forgot that Trump has made nearly 30,000 stock trades in the past year
05:27and raked in billions more than all of Congress combined.
05:31Democrats have offered multiple bills that would close all these loopholes.
05:36Republicans have done nothing to stop corruption, not in the White House, not in Congress, nowhere.
05:43The Republican toothless stock trading bill is as ineffective as a screen door on a submarine.
05:48And let's be clear, they don't even want it to pass.
05:53They designed the bill to fail.
05:54They loaded their legislation with poison pills that they knew would make this bill dead
05:59on arrival.
06:00They're even afraid of this wet noodle, weak milk toast bill.
06:05The voting restrictions in this bill and the voting restrictions that they added as a poison
06:12pill are more extreme than any law in any state.
06:16It would make voting more difficult in every state than it is now.
06:23They're some of the most twisted, radical schemes Trump has ever dreamed up to rig our election.
06:31Republicans know no one wants these provisions, so they included them to kill their own bill.
06:37Well, this hollow bill is in a stock trading ban.
06:40It's Republican last-dish effort to save face.
06:43If Republicans' closing pitch is a bill that would let them continue to profit off their
06:48office and allow Trump to rig the election, that's their problem.
06:52Americans don't buy it.
06:55And finally, on a much happier note, nearly a decade ago, I made one of the greatest decisions
07:03anyone in this line of work can make.
07:06I hired a top-notch, first-rate person who was so talented in every way.
07:12I hired Sietta Kiendoli.
07:17That was a time of a lot of change.
07:20Our party was still finding its footing after a stinging election loss.
07:24I had just become Democratic leader.
07:27My staff was expanding.
07:29We were determined to rally our coalition and make it bigger and stronger than ever before.
07:34Everyone my team and I talked to, and we said we needed someone to create this and help create
07:41that coalition, help glue it together, mentioned the same person.
07:45They said, hire Sietta.
07:48Sietta joined my leadership staff as Director of External Affairs.
07:52But the title doesn't adequately capture all that Sietta has done and does for this country.
07:59I'm not sure any title could.
08:02Sietta has always had the same star to connect people, policy, and politics, and do it in
08:09such an exquisite and effective way.
08:14That's what she did before joining my team.
08:16That's what she did for the past decade on my team.
08:19And that's what she'll continue to do as she starts her next chapter.
08:23Name any group in our big tent, any labor union, advocacy organization, caucus.
08:28Chances are they have not only met Sietta, but have known her for years.
08:32And they most likely adore her.
08:35Sietta's job isn't easy.
08:37She gets a lot of telephone calls from various members of our coalition.
08:42Sometimes they call her about a hard vote.
08:45Sometimes they call her about a fire that needs to be put out.
08:48Sometimes, actually many times, they call her begging for her to get me to switch up the
08:56jokes that I repeat at their events year after year after year.
09:01She's had moderate, moderate, marginal success in that regard.
09:06If they only knew how many times she has heard my jokes.
09:13And I see her eyes roll when I laugh at my own joke that I've told for the hundredth time.
09:22I'm sure she'll miss hearing me talk about the can of peas, the barber bookie, and all
09:28of my other greatest hits.
09:31On a more serious note, there are plenty of people who know how to command respect.
09:37But there are fewer who can match Sietta's ability to command the trust of any room she
09:43walks into.
09:44She's a truth teller.
09:45And she tells the truth all the time so they know when she says something, it's the real
09:49deal.
09:50I've seen that happen hundreds, hundreds of times to the benefit of all of us, myself,
09:57and the coalitions that we bring together.
10:01It doesn't matter who she's meeting.
10:03They can tell from the jump that her heart's in the right place.
10:07They can see how much she cares about serving New Yorkers and Americans from one end of the
10:12country to the other.
10:14So just as others have come to trust Sietta, so have I.
10:17She's among the people I trust most.
10:20She is a truth teller.
10:23My staff knows that I move a mile a minute.
10:26When I get riled up, Sietta knows how to get me to slow down, to think about the bigger
10:31picture.
10:32Just having her in the room during a meeting or on the line during an important call helps
10:37put me at ease.
10:39I imagine Sietta won't miss the long days and late night calls from yours truly.
10:45But I hope she knows how much we're going to miss her.
10:49Her good humor, her calm, her willingness to share her wisdom with whomever happens to
10:54need it.
10:56Sietta, I look forward to seeing what you'll do next.
11:00But I know what it will be.
11:02It will keep bringing people together for the good of the country.
11:06You'll continue making everyone around you better.
11:09And she'll always fight.
11:11You'll always fight to connect people, policy and politics.
11:18Sietta, thank you for your friendship.
11:19Thank you for your dedication.
11:21Thank you for your loyalty.
11:23Thank you for caring so much about this country and the people you have fought so hard for.
11:29You will always be a member of the Schumer family and we wish you Godspeed.
11:35I yield the floor.
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11:48You.
11:50You.
