Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On New Biden Administration Action To Expand Background Checks Under The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act

Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor applauding the Biden Administration for expanding background checks under the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks:

Today is a big day in America for commonsense gun safety reform.

This morning, the Biden Administration announced a rule expanding background checks and closing loopholes for online sales and gun shows – a direct result of the bipartisan gun safety law passed two years ago.

This gun safety announcement has been decades coming – it is the first significant expansion of background checks since I led passage of the Brady bill way back in 1993.

Today’s announcement expanding background checks shows change is possible when both sides work together, even if progress is hard and halting. After all, a few years ago this announcement would have been unimaginable.

Because Democrats and Republicans cast aside the influence of groups like the NRA and worked together, today’s announcement has been made possible.

The expansion of background checks will save lives. It will be easier to prevent guns from falling into the wrong hands. It will show parents and teachers and kids and Americans everywhere impacted by gun violence that Congress is listening.

We have a lot of work to do but today is a clear step in the right direction.

As the author of the Brady Law, today’s announcement on background checks is a proud moment, and a galvanizing one. We should build on the historic bill that we passed in 2022 and cure our nation of the disease of gun violence.

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