Seamless job of plugging the gap. When this program started in the early 1990s, i had no idea it could develop into what it had become. I hope youll join me in thanking him for the good job. [applause] weve had a lot of interesting speakers over the years. There might be none more interesting than our guests this morning. You brooklyn. Mer is from always associate a smell of triple x roche sprayed with love. It was his hard work day in and day out that took this kid from brooklyn to the United States and it. It is also why last year Time Magazine named him one of the most influential people. He was elected to the new York State Assembly at the age of 23. In his memoir, chuck remembered his parents actually did not want him to run. Basically life of a corporate lawyer was to be 6 respectable and comfortable. But chuck, my life would have been a lot easier if you had listened to your parents. Since that first electoral victory, yes cap the perfect batting average of never losing a single election. He has served in both the house and senate. A lot of people talk about working hard, but chuck has taken it to a whole new level. There is nobody that works harder than this guy. Been schumers ace in the hole. The the senate convened for 115th congress, he became the first new yorker to serve as Senate Democrats leader. He lives in brooklyn with his and no matter how much time he spends in washington, he never lets anybody forget where hes from. And leadership roles, i get to work close with him every single day. We negotiate the legislative schedule, nominations and other important policy matters before the senate. As majority in minority leaders, we are like the offenses and defensive coordinators. Ive had both roles. As coach for tree no can tell , coach for tree no coach petrino can tell you offensive coordinator is better. Washington can i often think they teach them in Journalism School that conflict is the news. But the senate is collegial place, we dont dislike each other, we can Work Together, and we have a long history of robust debates over the history of this country. I have to remind students from time to time anything you may have heard us say about each other pales in comparison to what adams and jefferson said about each other. We have yet a single incident where a congressman from South Carolina came over and almost beat to death a senator from massachusetts with a cane. So, robust debate is not unusual, been going on in this country for a very long time, but at every critical moment in this country, weve come together to do what needed to be done, to move the ball down the field. Now, a lot of people probably look at chuck and me and conclude something very different, but, in fact, its a great tradition of Senate Leaders working together. In 1990, George Mitchell and bob dole worked together to pass with the americans with disabilities act. Trent lott and tom daschle wrote a book together after they left the senate in the early 2000s. One of the most visible ways that chuck and i are seen together is every day when the senate floor opens for business. After the prayer and the pledge of allegiance, each of us has the opportunity to offer opening remarks detailing our views of the bits of the day. Traditionally, i speak first followed by the democratic leader. Now that we have this show on the road, im the warmup act and i am thrilled to have my good friend, the democratic leader of the senate here this morning. Join me in welcoming chuck schumer. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. [applause] its so great to be here with you. What a wonderful room and thank you, mitch, for that kind and generous introduction. We really do get along, despite what you read in the press. Now, as mitch will tell you, i all the like to start off with a little story, a little joke. My colleagues sometimes say no one laughs harder at my jokes than i do. But so this is a story its actually dedicated to my parents. I am blessed, my dad is 94, my mom is 89, praise god, and my dad as mitch mentioned struggled his whole life. He had this little exterminating business, it wasnt very successful, but when at age 70 he retired, my brother, who is a corporate lawyer and the financially successful schumer bought them a little house in florida. So, every winter theyd drive their car down to florida had a great time. My dad never played golf before, they took up golf and see their friends down there and had a good time. As they got older, things changed a little bit. My dad couldnt golf anymore and many of their friends passed on so they needed something to do. So Florida AtlanticUniversity Offers any Senior Citizen is allowed to take a course for free. So, my parent enrolled in the course called humor. Now, what was that . Every thursday at 4 00 p. M. Theyd roll up to Florida Atlantic university, go to the course called humor and what was it . Some erstwhile comedian who never made it in the catskills told jokes and my dad said college was easy i should have gone and they called each week with their favorite jokes and this is one of them. Mrs. Walters is brought before the judge and the judge rolls his eyes. Mrs. Walters, youre back. Yes, your honor, im back. What did you steal this time, mrs. Walters . Your honor, i stole a can of peaches from a supermarket down the road. The judge is exasperated. He said, look, i know youre a kleptomaniac. I know its an illness and i know you cant help yourself and you can easily afford a can of peaches. This is march youve been arrested for shoplifting 17 times already and i have no choice, but to sentence you to some time in jail. Now, how many peaches were in the can, mrs. Walters . Your honor, there were four peaches in the can. And i have no choice im going to sentence you to four nights in jail, one for each peach. Hes about to bang the gavel and pronounce center when a gentlemen in the courtroom gets up agitated, your honor, may it please the court, im her husband. She also stole a can of peas. [laughter] so when you students all get old enough to retire and move to florida, you can enroll in at Florida Atlantic university and call your children and regail them with jokes. Anyway, its great to be here and i want to recognize at the beginning this Incredible Group of young scholars. You are going to have a positive and Lasting Impact on your state, on your country. Give yourselves a round of applause. You are our future. [applause] the scholars are so good i recruit them. One of the wonderful mcconnell scholars, jack, will be an intern in my d. C. Office this summer. My d. C. Office this summer. [applause] credit also goes, of course, to the great director of the Mcconnell Center, gary gregg, whos done an outstanding job at the helm for almost two decades. And finally, id like to thank my friend and he truly is, my friend Mitch Mcconnell, for this gracious invitation. I really respect and appreciate what mitch and his wife elaine have accomplished here at the Mcconnell Center. Nurturing the next generation of bright kentucky leaders. In new york, particularly in upstate new york, ive worked hard to support our network of worldclass public universities and tried to attract companies that would keep the Young Students in new york once they graduated. That is indeed just what the Mcconnell Center does, among other things, for kentucky and you should be very, very proud. Now, much of the coverage about Mitch Mcconnell and me, as he mentioned, focuses on the differences between us and the two states we represent, but the truth is, there are plenty of things that link mitchs hometown of louisville with my hometown of brooklyn. Take basketball, for instance, i know mitch is a huge fan of his alma mater. Every monday id come back and say how is louisville doing . Where are they in the rankings . I dont ask him this year as much. [laughter] but i didnt want to miss this opportunity, that two of the three louisville basketball teams ever to win the National Championship were led by new yorkers. In 1980, it was the mcrae brothers, rodney and scooter from mt. Vernon in westchester county. In 2013, kevin ware and smith from the bronx in brooklyn and this year, jordan wora is from the great city of buffalo. So, you never know. Here is another thing you might not realize we have in common. Bourbon. It turns out that brooklyn, where i was born, raised and still proudly live, produces some of the best bourbon in the world. I know thats a contentious thing to say in these parts, but i think its true. Now, this particular bourbon will james, is disspilled right around the apartment around the corner from the apartment where ive lived, my wife iris and i have lived more than 30 years. Its filtered through the same limestone that was used to build some of new yorks iconic structures, from the brooklyn bridge, to the statue of liberty, and as a thank you for his invitation, id like to give this bottle. [applause] now, mitch and i dont agree on a lot of things, as you just heard, im sure hell never agree that new york bourbon even counts as bourbon, but when we need to come together to solve our countrys problems and most pressing issues, we can and do successfully Work Together. As the longest serving leader of the Senate Republican caucus, he understands the pressure that every leader faces, including me. Im new at the job. We try our best to understand each other, to never ask things that are impossible of the other, to be honest and respectful, to work in good faith and try to meet the middle wherever possible. Now, thats how we get things done in the senate. Sometimes it doesnt happen. Its no secret i didnt agree with the way health care and tax legislation were considered in the senate, for example. But, sometimes it does happen. Late last week, for instance, in the early hours of friday morning, the Senate Passed a twoyear budget deal that provides significant investments in our military and in our middle class, including funding to fight opioid epidemic, and relieve the student loan burden so many young people carry with them. Its a significant achievement, a genuine, bipartisan breakthrough and shows in very Divisive Political climates, the senate can be the place where the business of the nation gets done. Last april, mitch and i cut our first budget deal and then sanctions against president putin for his interference in our 2016 election and now we have this twoyear budget agreement which hopefully will lead the way, mitch is an appropriator. They never let me on the Appropriations Committee that we can do appropriation bills throughout this year and the next where genuine bipartisanship happens every, every day. We have proven the senate can function when both parties work in a bipartisan way and endeavor to forego compromises. This week, the senate will have an opportunity to build on that progress. The senate is poised to take up one of the very most contentious of issues, immigration. Leader mcconnell, to his credit, has promised an open process thats fair to both sides. Democrats and republicans are laboring to find a bill to protect the dreamers and provide Border Security and garner 60 votes. It wont be easy, but we are all going to try because of the gravity of issues at stake and this week will be a test of the senate through the stormy waters. I believe it can. Weve shown that the senate can lead before and it must do so again. The house is fractured. The president is the president. And the senate, is the senate that has the potential to act as a beacon of stable leadership and process in a political culture plagued by gridlock, indecision and we have a special obligation to this country. The senate, where each individual senator is empowered with the rights of the minority are not only respected but cherished by the rules made bipartisanship, not just by goal, its practically a necessity. In the sene, you all know what president washington called it. A cooling saucer for the hot tea of politics which can lead the senate through difficult times. If there was ever a time when our politics needed a cooling saucer, it is now. That is what our history teaches us. We begin this week on immigration, but im sure it wont be the last issue on which the leadership in the senate is required. I am hopeful that the same spirit that led mitch and i to a budget deal, that spirit of bipartisanship and compromise, putting country before party will lead us through immigration and the many challenges to come. As you know, abe lincoln said the best thing for politicians to do is tell stories and i like to do that. When youre around as long as ive been, youve got a whole lot of them. I thought id conclude by telling you young folks how got i got into politics. It is the question i get most asked when i go to campus. Mitch came out with a book that documents his journey into politics so its only fair. Unlike many of you and unlike mitch, as a High School Senior i had no idea that politics would end up being my life. I went to a workingclass high school in brooklyn, James Madison high school. My father was an exterminator, didnt go to college but from that workingclass high school in 1967 i got into harvard. That didnt happen very often. I got into two reasons. I was a decent, not great basketball player. In madison, our teams motto at madison was we may be small but we are slow. But second, i had to get a job when i was 14 to help my family. And it was a Madison High School teacher advertising for somebody to run something called a mimeo machine. How many of you young people have ever heard of it . Neither had my daughters but there was a day before xerox machines when you would take a stencil and put it on a clunky machine with rollers. I got the job. What was the new business at Madison High School teacher . He had this brilliant idea. He was going to prepare students for the sats. What was his name . Kaplan. 30 years later and a Great American success story, sold the business to the Washington Post but i went and worked there at nights, weekends, holidays id work the machine. The business took off so we got an electric machine and as the machine went around and around , i read the preparatory materials over and over and i took five apps and i got for 800s. So the guidance counselor said you should apply to harvard, youre an athlete with 800. I was scared because no one like me went to harvard in those days. It was 80 private school so i went to the one guy from my high school whod been to harvard and he was a basketball player and i said how am i going to make it at this place . He said try out for the freshman basketball team. They are terrible and youll make it. He said, those will be your friends that you will hang out with. So its the fourth day of tryouts and were wearing these little numbers. Coach calls me up, number 27, you are schumer. You went to madison, house coach soandso . And he looks at me and said you played forward . How tall are you . I said im 6 6, sir. He said, can you dribble . I said thats not my strong suits her. Sir. He said go home. He didnt watch me touch of all. Want me to touch the ball. I was distraught, wrote wrote my mom a note saying i should have gone to Brooklyn College and im coming home monday. That night someone knocks on my door. How would you like to join the Harvard Young democrats . We are working for a man named Eugene Mccarthy who is running in the New Hampshire primary against lynch and johnson on the basis that the vietnam war was a mistake. I didnt have a political bone in my body. My mother was a democrat and i was against the war so i said okay. The next morning i got on a bus , went up to New Hampshire with a bunch of kids from the whole boston area and i loved it. It was like sports. You write are only slits, not on the doors, we had a great time. It was so good that i was given a high title in the Mccarthy Campaign in the nashua, New Hampshire office because they had to mimeo machines and i knew how to run them. It was a ramshackle campaign. If you remember your history, mccarthy didnt quite win the primary. He came within three or four points but lyndon johnson, a man who i admire in a rare act of humility saw the handwriting on the wall and said week later im not going to run. I said to myself wow. A group of students and other assorted nobodies , a ramshackle campaign and we toppled the most powerful man in the world . What a system we have. This is what i want to dedicate my life to. So for the rest of my days ive been interested in politics and have been an elected official since ive been 23 and my dad, he would take sunday nights in his exterminating business and my sister and i , he hated going to work monday morning. To this day, i wake up monday morning and i love going to work. Thank you very much for the opportunity to address you. [applause] thank you, senator schumer. Senator schumer has agreed to take questions. I know from your audience that just turned in cards and Mary Kay Lindsay and hannah washington will take turns asking questions. Good morning senator, thanks for being here i dont see where. I dont see where you are, where are you mary kay . First question from the audience, theres been talk of a blue wave of democrats winning seats in the midterms. If this is to happen, what are the biggest obstacles democrats must overcome before that