Leader Schumer Floor Remarks Urging The Senate To Adopt His Amendment To Block Taxpayer Dollars From Funding Trump’s Foreign-Owned “Air Force One” – The Largest Bribe In American History

Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor ahead of the vote on his amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, which would prohibit the use of taxpayer funds going to any remodeling or maintenance of the President’s foreign-owned Air Force One:

Back in May, President Trump accepted the largest foreign gift to an American president in modern history – a $400 million luxury Boeing 747, for use as Air Force One.

It is outrageous that President Trump wants to fly around the world like a king while Americans are getting hammered by tariffs, paying more for healthcare, groceries, rent, and electricity.

Some say that this plane was gifted and thus didn’t cost the US anything. But make no mistake: merely retrofitting this foreign-owned luxury jet to make it fully operational would cost hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars. That is money that should not be wasted.

So today I have an amendment that will make sure not a penny of taxpayer dollars authorized by this NDAA will go to any remodeling or maintenance of the President’s foreign-owned Air Force One. It would prohibit funds authorized by this bill from being diverted for the procurement, modification, restoration, or maintenance of an aircraft previously owned by a foreign government for the purposes of providing presidential airlift. And it would ensure the security and continued reliability of the Air Force One fleet.

Republicans like to talk about eliminating waste, fraud and abuse. Spending even a penny of taxpayer dollars on retrofitting this luxury jet is about as wasteful, as wasteful as it gets.

I urge my Republican colleagues who care about spending taxpayer dollars responsibly to support this amendment.

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