Washington, D.C. – Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA) urged his Senate colleagues to come together and work towards an agreement to re-open the government and restore expiring health care premium tax credits on behalf of the 22 million Americans at risk of losing coverage under Washington Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill. The compromise proposal would add a clean, one-year extension of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credit and reopen the government. This proposal ensures working families who get their coverage through the ACA marketplace would see minimal disruption to the cost of their monthly premiums in 2026.
“We come to our sisters and our brothers on the other side and we extend the hand of compromise,” said Senator Warnock. “Because it hasn’t taken me long to learn that really that’s the only way you get anything done in this body. I work all the time with colleagues with whom I disagree about 90% of the time. Because it’s not about them, and it’s not about me, it’s about the people we represent.”
“In the words of Scripture, ‘let us reason together’,” continued Senator Warnock. “Let us have a conversation. Let’s re-open the government. Let’s extend health care to folks who – in real time – are opening up the portal, and they have sticker shock. And then let’s sit down and figure it out, because if we’re honest, the status quo is not working very well for anybody. Anybody who’s just trying to defend the status quo has not been talking to ordinary people. There are a lot of things that need to be fixed, and we can do that, but we got to re-open the government and give the people a little bit of hope.”
Read the full transcript of Senator Reverend Warnock’s remarks below and watch HERE.
“I believe in health care. Your health, my mother told me a long time ago, is everything. So, take care of your health. It is vital. It is essential. And I believe that health care is a human right, and it is certainly something that the wealthiest nation on the planet and in the history of humankind can and ought to provide for all of its citizens. It is right, it is fair, but it is also smart. A healthy nation is a strong nation. Healthy children are ready to learn, and so that’s why I’ve worked so hard and so long with my colleagues on this issue.”
“Matter of fact, long before I came to the Senate, I’ve been focused on this issue of health care, trying to get my home state of Georgia to expand. And I keep preaching that sermon, because right now, there are more than 500,000 Georgians who are in the health care coverage gap.”
“I came here in 2017 to this place, not as a senator, but as a pastor and as an activist. And I remember getting arrested, I believe in 2017 when they were major health care cuts on the table, and as I began to make my argument and gathered with other pastors in the rotunda. The Capitol Police – very professionally – began to say to us, ‘Pastors, you can’t gather and pray in the rotunda. We’ll have to arrest you.’”
“What they didn’t understand is that I had already been arrested. My mind and my imagination had been arrested by this idea that surely the American nation can do better than this. Health care is a human right. Dr King – who led the church that I am still honored to lead – said that of all the injustices, inequality in health care is the most shocking and the most inhumane. That’s why I was proud to join my colleagues, and I am proud to stand with my colleagues in this fight.”
“This is about 22 million Americans who will see their health care premiums double, some triple, some quadruple. And this is not theoretical stuff for me. These are the people in my community. These are folks sitting in the pews of my church, and many of them will lose their health care if something doesn’t happen”
“A few weeks ago, I was at the Evans County Memorial Hospital in Evans County, and I got to tell you, that’s a red district. I don’t have a whole lot of votes – I got some. Claxton, Georgia, known for the fruitcakes. And I was at that hospital, and I can tell you that those folks were already worried because of the draconian cuts to Medicaid in the One Big, Beautiful Bill – so called Beautiful Bill. 15 million Americans already standing to lose their health care, and then the premiums raised for 22 million Americans? While giving Elon Musk and people like him a tax cut? That’s beyond the pale of partisanship.”
“For me, that’s not about Democrats and Republicans. You ask ordinary people on the street if they think that’s fair. I can tell you that those folks in Evans County, many of whom who did not vote for me, but I am fighting for them because I am their senator too. They’re worried about it. And so that’s why we’ve been in this fight. And that’s why we continue to stand to this very day.”
“It’s day 38 and we’re holding vigil because of the pain of the people we represent. And there’s a lot of pain to go around. 22 million whose premiums may go up have gone up. They’re seeing it on the portals right now, federal workers who have been furloughed. Me, the kids who were like me, are in Head Start. We got Head Start centers that are about to shutter because of the government shutdown. And let’s be honest, the folks on SNAP were dragged into this fight. They were not a part of this; they were dragged into this fight. There are already legal provisions to make sure that they are cared for, and this administration – right now – is defying a court order to feed America’s hungry people.”
“All of that pain from the crisis in health care from the ongoing government shutdown. We come to our sisters and our brothers on the other side, and we extend the hand of compromise, because it hasn’t taken me long to learn that really that’s the only way you get anything done in this body. I work all the time with colleagues with whom I disagree about 90% of the time. Because it’s not about them, and it’s not about me, it’s about the people we represent. And the founders were wise to organize our government in such a way that that’s the only way to have sustainable change is to do it in a bipartisan basis.”
“So, my colleagues have taken their position, we’ve taken ours, and here we are at an impasse, but I represent a state that elected me and Donald Trump, and so they expect us to figure it out. Sometimes, when I’m driving my car, I’ve got a nine-year-old and a six-year-old, nine-year-old daughter, six-year-old son. Sometimes they’re in the back seat having a disagreement: ‘He looked at me’. ‘She touched me’. And then they say, ‘Daddy’ – you know, they call on me. And here’s what I say more often than not: ‘Figure it out. The two of you on the back seat of the car, that’s your sister, that’s your brother. We’re all in the same car. We’re trying to get to the same destination. Figure it out.’ We’re all in the same car tonight.”
“Democrats and Republicans – there’s a way in which the poor and the wealthy, there’s a way in which they’re all in the same car. COVID reminded us of that. Before we had a vaccine, if my neighbor had the virus, I too, was in peril. That didn’t make my neighbor my adversary. That means that I have a vested interest in making sure that my neighbor has coverage.”
“And so, here’s the proposal, one-year clean extension of the ACA subsidies. That’s not what we want. If we had it our way, we would make it permanent. That’s not what we fought for, 38 days for a one-year extension, but we’re offering that after standing for 38 days. A one-year extension. And then let’s sit down, and in the words of Scripture: ‘Let us reason together.’ Let us have a conversation. Let’s re-open the government. Let’s extend healthcare to folks who – in real time – are opening up the portal, and they have sticker shock. And then let’s sit down and figure it out. Because if we’re honest, the status quo is not working very well for anybody. Anybody who’s just trying to defend the status quo has not been talking to ordinary people. There are a lot of things that need to be fixed, and we can do that, but we got to re-open the government and give people a little bit of hope. Give those 22 million Americans hope. Give the 44 million Americans who need SNAP some hope. Give our federal workers some hope.”
“There’s an African proverb that says: ‘When the elephants fight, it’s the grass that suffers.’ It’s the grass roots in Georgia and all across the nation right now who are suffering because too often the politicians make the politics about the politicians rather than about the people. Let’s center the people, and if we center the people, we will compromise and we’ll figure it out.”
“In closing, Mr. President – nobody believes the Baptist preacher when he says, ‘in closing’. I’ve worked with members of your party on a whole range of things, and at the risk of embarrassing him, Ted Cruz and I even work together every now and then. And I mentioned him because early in my tenure here, he and I worked on a little thing, just a little provision, to try to get a little bit closer to building out this interstate I-14 that would run through Georgia all the way to Texas. Same road that runs through Texas runs through Georgia. And if we get that road built out, when it’s time to get on that road, nobody asks you, ‘Are you a Democrat or are you a Republican?’ Nobody asks you about your religion or if you have a religious tradition at all. Nobody asks you. Some folks are going to church, some are going to the mosque, some are going to temple, some are going to the park, some are going to the beach, but they all get on the same road trying to get to wherever they’re going.”
“There is a road that runs through this American experience. There is a road that runs through our humanity that ought to connect all of us together, that ought to remind us that we all want our children to thrive and we all want our families to have a future. Let us make haste to that road and walk towards a brighter American future. I yield the floor.”
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