Intro president Morgan in a few minutes the Senate will vote on the tax relief for American workers and families act there has been a lot of discussion and debate this week about it and I'll make just a few final points Republicans are talking a lot Republicans talk a lot these days trying to convince Americans that they are the ones who support Children and Families not Democrats Republicans talk about supporting small businesses they talk about competing with China they talk about how terrible it is that nobody can afford a home in America and they talk about cracking down on fraud in government programs the bill that the Senate will vote on in a few minutes helps with each and every one of these issues now we're going to see whether Senate Republicans really in fact do want to help whether they're offering Its time to wait anything more than talk over the last couple of days I've read lots of comments from Republican Senators who say that it's really time to wait and if Republicans take control of the Senate they'll write a better bill so I would ask better for whom one one thing I'm sure of is it won't be a better bill for the 16 million kids who stand to benefit today today colleagues from The Proposal we are going to vote on and it won't come as any comfort to families who are getting clobbered on rent or the small businesses they're going to fail if they don't get help now the House of Representatives passed The House passed this bill this bill back in January it was the product of work with Republican chair Jason Smith and I but it had also included a Year's worth of negotiations with colleagues here in the Senate that bill got 357 votes Mr President almost an even split between the two parties and as I've said before in the House of Representatives at this point it'd be hard to get 3 57 votes if you're just out ordering a piece of pie the only reason our bipartisan Bill didn't become law six months ago was because of the delay of Senate Republicans I offered to make The delay of Senate Republicans changes Mr President I met with a significant number of Senate Republicans personally they talked about what their proposed ideas were for compromise and I offered them I offered them I said it publicly in the Senate finance committee wasn't good enough although they looked a little bit like the dog that caught the car but in Old School basketball terms Senate Republicans just continued the delays it was kind of the old four corner offense stall and drain the clock but for the millions of people who are hurting those folks can't afford for the Senate to just keep waiting now the reality is when it comes The easy stuff to tax policy debates this is the easy stuff the difficult issues don't get agreement from 357 members of the House of Representatives the debate on taxes is sure to get a lot harder when Congress is going to have to deal with trillions of dollars in tax changes coming down the pike if Senate Republicans can't work across the aisle or work with a house that produced 357 votes going to be some very very heavy lifting next year and I'll close with this every senator now has a choice the results here are not predetermined Republicans can choose to side with children's and families Republicans can choose to side with people who are walking an economic tight RPP just trying to pay the rent importantly Republicans can choose to side with small businesses the fact is the problems small businesses are having today to a great extent are due to the singlehanded efforts of Senate Republicans who did Singlehanded efforts nothing to block an effort to derail the research and development credit in fact they were willing to derail the research and development Credit in the 201 2017 tax bill when everybody said we need this to compete with China Senate Republicans said nah we're interested in giving tax breaks to people at the top rather than small businesses so they gutted gutted the research and development tax credit credit for small business not a single Democrat voted for it and then they promised to fix it in 2018 in 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 and 2024 all those years Senate Republicans said they get a break for small businesses on the research and development issue now a lot of those small businesses have to go out and B to keep their doors open so we offered to work that and This is a chance other issues out but Republicans said Gee we're we're just going to wait around till 202 well I want to say to my colleagues and I want to say to the country a lot of these small businesses the research and development uh issue is a Lifeline I've had them come to me and say run them not even going to be around in 2025 for somebody like the Senate Republicans who wants to wait I say we ought to help them now and make no mistake about it a senate that passes this legislation can allow our bill to go to the president of the United States right away right away and help goes out those 16 15 million of families the 4 million small businesses that depend on the research and development credit the families that got clobbered with disasters we have a chance to help those families who after they got clobbered with disasters got clobbered by an outdated tax code we would fix it we would fix it today and because of Senator cwell hundreds of thousands of units of affordable housing could get The way I say it on the way today so Senate Republicans can do those things that I just described and the way I say it Mr President you know if you show up for work around here and you got a chance to help 16 million Kids 4 million small businesses scores of businesses who've been clobbered by disasters create hundreds of thousands of units of housing doing all that Mr President sounds to me like one hell of a day at the office so Senate Republicans can choose to help that way or they can continue with excuses empty talk and what are sure to be their plans to for the future lock in even more handouts to Big corporations and the wealthy this is a thoroughly bip partisan Bill 357 votes in the House of Representatives every Republican on the house Ways and Means Committee voted for this bill so I say Let's Help the kids and the families Let's Help the small businesses Let's help those who need housing let's be there for those who face these disasters I say to my colleagues on the Republican side this is a chance to help everybody in America everybody I hope my Republican colleagues make the right choice I strongly urge them to vote Yes and side with the children and families all over the country and I yield the flu