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Chuck Schumer
New York
Senator since 1998
2022 midterms
“New York not only legalized marijuana—but ensured restorative justice for those harmed by the War on Drugs. This is a model for how Congress must deal with this issue. I'm working with Cory Booker and Ron Wyden on comprehensive marijuana reform legislation.”
If you’re like me, you may sometimes privately — though blushingly — admit to yourself that you get more excited about pop culture than about the hard facts of politics. If that’s the case, you’ll enjoy my telling you that the indefatigable Chuck Schumer happens to be the second cousin of hilarious rom-com actor Amy Schumer. Although the two frequent different crowds, Amy knows cousin Chuck well enough to have countered Trump’s accusation that he shed “fake tears” over the ban on Muslim immigrants by assuring her fans: “Trust me, [Chuck] can barely smile on cue. He can’t help but be transparent and genuine.”
Amy’s endorsement tickles me, but I suppose her cousin’s consistent policy positions and voting record are stronger proof of his dedication to social justice and truth in this era of shifting allegiances and fake news. The Democratic senior senator from New York has served since 1999, and in 2022 he is up for reelection. Schumer’s career as an enactor and sponsor of bills, which began in the New York State legislature, is miles long and places him at the center left of his party, but since the 2016 election and his role as Senate Minority Leader, he has had to spend most of his time playing the human bulwark against the hurricane known as Donald Trump and has consequently ended up cosponsoring or endorsing fewer bills than most other Senate Democrats. He has, as well, partly had to forgo his penchant for reaching across the aisle to try to reach an agreement with the opposition in order to batten down the moral ideals held dear by his party.
Almost single-handedly, Schumer has faced Trump the blowhard with increasingly fiercer critiques, acidly responding even to the news of Trump’s contraction of COVID-19 not with “get-well-soon” wishes but with the words, “I think he is the worst president we have ever had… He will say one thing and then say another… He doesn't care about the truth or other people. He cares about feeding his infantile ego and has been a disaster in terms of his policy on Covid.”
Nevertheless, throughout this necessary nuclear war, Schumer has somehow managed to remain faithful to key beliefs, among which is his support of voting rights. In 2019, he passionately revealed one of the most ambitious proposals regarding those rights, which included restoring the defunct pre-clearance mechanism of the Voting Rights Act that requires federal approval of election laws for any district with a history of disenfranchising voters.
Schumer’s support of threatened Obamacare has also been indefatigable. Just this past fall, he put anti-Obamacare Republicans on the spot by calling for a vote on a measure to block the Justice Department from intervening in lawsuits involving the 2010 Affordable Care Act — a measure designed to reveal who really cares about preventing health insurance companies from reinstating pre-existing conditions, something he cares about passionately but suspects Mitch McConnell doesn’t.
Chuck Schumer is a truly tireless senator, and we may witness the fullest proof of his commitment when he becomes Majority Senate leader. Regardless of that outcome, he is everything we expect from a politician who graduated from the same Brooklyn high school as Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Bernie Sanders and who is unabashedly vocal about welcoming his lesbian daughter and her wife to his Rosh Hashanah dinner table.
—Bruce Benderson
Bruce Benderson is an author, essayist, translator, and educator who grew up in Syracuse, New York and now lives between there and New York City. Benderson has written nine books including User, Pretending to Say No, Sex and Isolation, Pacific Agony, and the award-winning memoir The Romanian: Story of an Obsession.
Voting Record
In June of 2013 and July of 2014, Schumer was rated a far-left Democratic leader by GovTrack’s Political Spectrum & Legislative Leadership ranking. The Democratic colleague he most often voted with was Ben Cardin. The Republican congressperson he most often voted in agreement with was Susan Collins. The Democratic colleague he was least in accordance with was Joe Manchin, and the Republican was Jim Risch. Nevertheless, Schumer’s concordance with fellow Democrats seems to have slipped a small but significant degree in the last few years. In 2014 he voted with the Democratic Party 96.9 percent of the time, but by late 2020, this percentage had decreased to 86 percent.
Schumer does support increased American intervention in the Middle East, but he still locked horns with his arch-enemy Trump regarding an issue having to do with relations in that sector of the world. Schumer was strongly in favor of blocking the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — and Trump was against it. A measure instituting such a block was endorsed by both the House and the Senate, but it was eventually vetoed by the President.
Schumer recently voted in favor of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, but Trump vetoed that bill as well, claiming it was too easy on China and Russia and objecting to a clause in it that shielded big tech companies from liability. In late 2020, Schumer voted in favor of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, a massive package designed to avert a government shutdown and providing $1.4 trillion to fund the federal government through September 2021. The bill also earmarked $900 billion in additional Covid-19 pandemic relief.
Covid is not the only health crisis to which Schumer has responded forcefully. In 2019, he was at the origin of one of the most important successful bills he has ever introduced. In reaction to our opioid crisis, he managed to shepherd the Fentanyl Sanctions Act through Congress, thereby establishing programs to oppose illicit opioid trafficking and imposing sanctions on foreign people and powers involved in such activities. The bill became law and is further proof of Schumer’s belief that the federal government can play an important role in ensuring the health of its citizens.
As far as Schumer is concerned, another aspect of public health concerns the availability of abortion. In January 2019, Schumer demonstrated his commitment to choice by voting against a measure that tried to institute a permanent ban on the use of federal funds for abortion or health coverage that includes abortions. Despite this, the bill was passed and became law.
In 2020, Schumer voted against three Trump-supported nominations, the most visible of which was Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court. He opposed the nomination of Eugene Scalia to be secretary of labor in 2019 and was also behind the effort to overturn President Trump’s emergency declaration for border wall funding, which was struck down by a joint resolution terminating the President’s declaration of a national emergency in favor of the wall. This measure against the wall was vetoed by the President.
Schumer was among those who voted in favor of the first economic stimulus package, for $2 trillion, on March 25, 2020.
Policy Positions
Health Care
Schumer does not support repealing Obamacare, insisting, “I am proud to support the historic Affordable Care Act — the 2010 health care reform bill that recently became law and will help over 30 million Americans, including almost 3 million uninsured New Yorkers, to gain access to affordable health insurance." He is decidedly pro-choice when it comes to abortion and has received a rating of 100 percent from NARAL Pro-Choice America and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. About the issue he has stated, "Republicans want to force women to surrender their health decisions to their bosses, and even let employers deny women access to contraception. If Republicans keep this up, they are going to drive away independents just like they are driving the moderates out of their caucus."
Economy
Schumer does not support lowering taxes as a way of stimulating the economy and believes the wealthy can play a greater role in accomplishing it. He has said, “Ensuring that millionaires and billionaires pay at least 30 percent of their income in taxes — a rate similar to many average Americans — we can reinstitute tax fairness in this country, a principle that our Tax Code has sadly lacked since the Bush tax cuts ballooned our debt by cutting taxes for the ultra-wealthy.”
Crime
Schumer is against mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders but is extremely concerned about the epidemic of dangerous drugs throughout this nation. To read about one successful attempt on his part to deal with it, see the discussion of The Fentanyl Sanctions Act in the section on his voting record below.
National Security
Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, Schumer does support increased American intervention in Iraq and Syria, beyond air support. He sees ISIS and similar terrorist groups as a continuing threat and thinks lowering any aspect of our guard against these powers is foolhardy. Specifically, he has said, “ISIS’s despicable acts of terror around the globe in recent weeks are harrowing reminders that we must do everything we can to keep our country safe. This proposal would tighten safety at our airports, help prevent ISIS from radicalizing people living in the United States, and prevent suspected terrorists from buying assault weapons. These are common-sense proposals that I hope will earn bipartisan support."
Immigration
Despite Schumer’s hard line on terrorism, he does not appear to think immigrants in this country represent an important part of that threat. Consequently, he does not support requiring immigrants who are unlawfully present to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship. “For us on the Democratic side,” he has explained, “it has been an important bottom line throughout this process that the path to citizenship not be put in jeopardy. The path is tough, as it should be, but must always be fair.”
Endorsements
The Human Rights Campaign
The League of Conservation Voters
Planned Parenthood Action Fund
The American Library Association
The National Farmers Union
Food Policy Action
Jim Kelly
:“When it looked like the Bills were going to leave, Chuck Schumer made sure that didn’t happen… He helped find a new owner \[and] worked with the NFL to keep the team in Buffalo.”
Mario Cilento
:“Chuck Schumer has been a tireless advocate for working men and women. He has demonstrated time and again, through actions and deeds, that he is a true friend to the Labor Movement and a champion for the middle class. Chuck worked hard to secure critical funding after Hurricane Sandy, led the way on the 9/11 Zadroga Health Bill, fought for infrastructure funding, and helped save countless jobs among other issues important to working people.”
State: New York
Despite the pandemic gripping this nation for over three quarters of the year 2020 and hitting especially hard in New York City, for the 22nd year in a row, Chuck Schumer has found a way to tour all 62 counties of the state he represents. Visiting every county in New York State is a promise Schumer made shortly after his election in 1998, and he has upheld this yearly ritual ever since. When asked why he thought it was worth taking such a risk this year, he answered, “At the close of 22 years, my beliefs are as clear as ever: Senators who stay in Washington and never return home are simply not doing their job.”
Even when Schumer was not in the midst of touring his state, he remained adamantly focused on it. This is how he managed to secure New York $167 billion in Covid relief during negotiations for the CARES Act and also to fight relentlessly for an expansion and reform of unemployment insurance that mitigated the poverty suffered by millions of New Yorkers hit hard by the virus. As chief architect of the “Marshall Plan for Healthcare,” Schumer also assured that New York would receive almost half ($4.5 billion) of the $10 billion intended for hospitals, health systems, and health centers in Covid “hot spots” throughout the country.
As a confirmed supporter of small businesses and nonprofits in his state, he negotiated nearly 349,000 awards to these entities as part of a rescue plan that made available over $38.6 billion in forgivable loans. He fought hunger with an extension of a pandemic-motivated EBT (food stamp) extension, and he even took into account the needs of the hemp farmers in this state by helping to draft a resolution that would give them until September 2021 to come into compliance with the USDA’s new hemp regulations — all of this without forgetting to find a way to deliver billions in financial aid to the subways, buses, and MTA of New York City.