133 Facts About Chuck Schumer

Charles Ellis Schumer is an American politician serving as the senior United States senator from New York, a seat he has held since 1999.

The dean of New York's congressional delegation, Chuck Schumer is in his fifth Senate term and was the Senate's minority leader from 2017 to 2021.

Chuck Schumer served nine terms in the United States House of Representatives from 1981 to 1999, first representing New York's 16th congressional district before being redistricted to the 10th congressional district in 1983 and 9th congressional district 10 years later.

In 1998, Chuck Schumer was elected to the Senate, defeating three-term Republican incumbent Al D'Amato.

Chuck Schumer chaired the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee from 2005 to 2009, overseeing 14 Democratic gains in the Senate in the 2006 and 2008 elections.

Chuck Schumer served as Vice Chair of the Democratic Caucus in the Senate from 2007 to 2017 and chaired the Senate Democratic Policy Committee from 2011 to 2017.

Chuck Schumer won his fourth term in the Senate in 2016 and was then unanimously elected Democratic leader to succeed Harry Reid, who was retiring.

In January 2021, Chuck Schumer became Senate Majority Leader, the first Jewish leader of either chamber of Congress.

Chuck Schumer was born on 23 November 1950 in Midwood, Brooklyn, the son of Selma and Abraham Chuck Schumer.

Chuck Schumer's father ran an exterminating business, and his mother was a homemaker.

Chuck Schumer and his family are Jewish, and he is a second cousin, once removed, of comedian Amy Schumer.

Chuck Schumer's ancestors originated from the town of Chortkiv, Galicia, in what is western Ukraine.

Chuck Schumer attended Brooklyn public schools, scoring 1600 on the SAT and graduating as the valedictorian of James Madison High School in 1967.

Chuck Schumer competed for Madison High on the television quiz show It's Academic.

Chuck Schumer attended Harvard College, where he originally majored in chemistry before switching to social studies after volunteering on Eugene McCarthy's presidential campaign in 1968.

Chuck Schumer passed the New York state bar in early 1975, but never practiced law, choosing a career in politics instead.

In 1974, Chuck Schumer ran for and was elected to the New York State Assembly, filling a seat previously held by Chuck Schumer's mentor, Congressman Stephen Solarz.

Chuck Schumer served three terms, from 1975 to 1981, sitting in the 181st, 182nd and 183rd New York State Legislatures.

Chuck Schumer was reelected eight times from the Brooklyn and Queens-based district, which changed numbers twice in his tenure.

In 1982, as a result of redistricting, Chuck Schumer faced a potential matchup with Solarz, but the matchup did not materialize.

Chuck Schumer introduced The Religious Freedom Restoration Act on March 11,1993.

Chuck Schumer won every county in the state except Hamilton County, in the Adirondacks, the least populous and most Republican county.

Notable former aides to Schumer include former US Representative Anthony Weiner, former New York State Senator Daniel Squadron, and New York State Assemblymembers Phil Goldfeder and Victor M Pichardo.

Chuck Schumer chaired the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, part of the Democratic Senate leadership, with primary responsibility for raising funds and recruiting Democratic candidates in the 2006 Senate election.

The incoming Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, persuaded Chuck Schumer to serve another term as DSCC chair.

In 2009, for the 111th Congress, Chuck Schumer was succeeded as DSCC chair by Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey.

Chuck Schumer had been widely expected to lead Senate Democrats after Reid announced his retirement in 2015.

Chuck Schumer is the first New Yorker, as well as the first Jewish person, to serve as a Senate leader.

In Washington, Chuck Schumer has been a lead consensus-builder on the difficult issues of health care, immigration, and financial regulation.

Chuck Schumer has a reputation for focusing on local issues important to average New Yorkers not normally associated with United States senators, ranging from tourism to local taxes to job creation.

When it was revealed that Adidas planned to end its contract for the manufacture of NBA jerseys with American Classic Outfitters, an upstate New York apparel company, and outsource production overseas, Chuck Schumer blasted the company, citing the risk to 100 workers at the plant.

When it was revealed that Canon Inc was considering relocating from its corporate headquarters in Long Island because of a dispute over road infrastructure funding, Chuck Schumer stepped in to advocate that New York state redirect federal stimulus dollars to make the road improvements and keep the company and its jobs on Long Island.

In October 2001, during a press conference, Chuck Schumer stated his desire that generic ciprofloxacin be available for government use.

Chuck Schumer said he believed the federal government had the authority to order the immediate production of generic ciproflaxin to expand the government stockpile of the drug.

Chuck Schumer joined Patrick Leahy to report that the Justice Department supported the legislation.

In October 2016, after FBI director James Comey announced the reopening of an investigation into whether Hillary Clinton, then the Democratic presidential nominee, mishandled classified emails during her tenure at the State Department, Chuck Schumer said that he had lost confidence in Comey.

In May 2017, after President Donald Trump fired Comey, Chuck Schumer told reporters that they were aware the FBI had been investigating whether the Trump campaign had colluded with Russia and pondered whether the investigation was "getting too close to home for the president".

In January 2018, Chuck Schumer said that since Mueller's investigation began, the United States "has had to endure conspiracy after conspiracy from the right wing, Republican congressmen, senators and of course the right-wing press, which acts in total cahoots" in regards to their views on the FBI, and that the Republicans' effort to discredit Mueller "has now devolved into delusional, self-serving paranoia".

In September 2005, after President George W Bush nominated John Roberts for Chief Justice of the United States, Schumer praised Roberts's brilliance, his being "a lawyer above all", and his "judicial philosophy and modesty and stability" during the Senate Judiciary Committee's confirmation hearings for Roberts.

In June 2018, Chuck Schumer said that Roberts was demeaning the Supreme Court as it became more political, citing the court ruling in favor of anti-abortion clinics in California.

Chuck Schumer said the court had "affirmed a plainly discriminatory travel ban, unleashed a flood of dark unlimited money in our politics and has scrapped a key pillar of the Voting Rights Act" and thereby aligned itself with goals of what he called "the hard right".

In October 2005, Chuck Schumer stated that Bush Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers "would not get a majority either in the Judiciary Committee or the floor" and that her confirmation hearings would cause her to gather either support or opposition in a way that had not been seen by any other nominee in recent memory.

In July 2018, it was reported that Schumer had advocated that Trump nominate Garland as a way to attract bipartisan support, as opposed to nominating someone opposed to the Affordable Care Act and Roe v Wade who would be more controversial.

In November 2016, Chuck Schumer said the Democrats would "go at" President-elect Trump if he did not nominate Supreme Court justices who were mainstream and that the Republicans did not have "clean hands" for having blocked the Garland nomination for months.

In March 2017, at the end of Senate hearings for Trump Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, Chuck Schumer said he would vote against confirmation and called on Democrats to join him in blocking an up-or-down vote on Gorsuch.

In July 2018, after Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh to replace the retiring Anthony Kennedy, Schumer said Kavanaugh should be asked direct questions about the precedent set by Roe v Wade and other cases.

Chuck Schumer called the vote "our best chance to make sure the internet stays accessible and affordable to all Americans".

In 2002, Chuck Schumer authored a provision to an industry-sponsored bill intended to make it harder for people to erase their debts by filing for bankruptcy.

In March 2019, Chuck Schumer was one of 38 senators to sign a letter to US Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue warning that dairy farmers "have continued to face market instability and are struggling to survive the fourth year of sustained low prices" and urging his department to "strongly encourage these farmers to consider the Dairy Margin Coverage program".

In January 2004, after President Bush renominated Charles Pickering to the federal appeals court along with 30 other nominees who had failed to win confirmation under the previous Democratic-controlled Senate, Chuck Schumer stated his intent to prevent Pickering's confirmation and said the US could do better.

In 2007, after Bush nominated former federal judge Michael Mukasey to become attorney general of the United States, Chuck Schumer expressed support for Mukasey.

Chuck Schumer said that Mukasey had assured him in a private meeting that he would enforce any law declaring waterboarding illegal, and that Mukasey had told him Bush would have "no legal authority" to ignore such a law.

Chuck Schumer voted on the impeachment charges of President Bill Clinton in both houses of Congress.

Chuck Schumer was a member of the House of Representatives during a December 1998 lame-duck session of Congress, voting "no" on all counts in committee and on the floor of the House.

Chuck Schumer passed legislation that required uniform disclosure information on the back of credit card applications, notifying prospective cardholders of annual fees and interest rates.

Chuck Schumer has aggressively pushed to end the practice whereby customers can be charged two ATM fees, one by their own bank and one by the bank that owns the ATM, if the ATM is outside their bank's network.

Chuck Schumer is seeking a ban on the use of cadmium, a carcinogen known to impair brain development in children, in toys and children's jewelry.

When companies began selling gloves, pills, inhalers, diuretics, shampoos and other products during the 2009 swine flu scare, Chuck Schumer urged the Federal Trade Commission to open an investigation.

Chuck Schumer has championed college tuition tax credits, calling for and passing a $4,000 tuition tax credit for students as part of a host of tax credits and cuts passed to stimulate the economy in the 2009 American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.

Chuck Schumer received an "A" grade on the 2008 Drum Major Institute's Congressional Scorecard on middle-class issues.

In October 2013, Chuck Schumer announced his support for a proposal ending restrictions on shipping beer, wine, and spirits through the US Postal Service, saying it would "help keep local post offices open by bringing in an estimated $225million in new revenues to the USPS" and broaden the availability of beers and wines to consumers.

In 2013, Chuck Schumer said the death penalty would be "appropriate" in the case of the Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the perpetrator of the Boston Marathon bombing.

In 2014, Chuck Schumer was recognized for helping to achieve the award of $700,000 in compensation from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for Gowanda, New York, as a result of the devastating flood there in 2009.

In December 2016, Chuck Schumer called on Trump cabinet nominees to release their tax returns and in doing so follow the precedent set by Steve Mnuchin and Tom Price.

In February 2017, before Trump's speech to a joint session of Congress, Chuck Schumer predicted that the speech would be less memorable than ones delivered by Trump's predecessors due to what he called "a yawning gap between what he says and what his administration actually does for working Americans".

In March 2017, Chuck Schumer released a statement calling on Trump to apologize for claiming the Obama administration had wiretapped him during his presidential campaign.

Chuck Schumer advocated that Trump stop tweeting to better focus on working on behalf of the United States and said Trump had "severely damaged his credibility" by promoting conspiracy theories.

Chuck Schumer was participating in the certification of the 2021 United States Electoral College vote count on January 6,2021, when Trump supporters attacked the US Capitol.

Chuck Schumer backed the measure and told reporters, "pay equity, that's women, that's 53 percent of the vote".

The article claimed that Schumer succeeded in limiting efforts to reform and regulate credit-rating agencies the George W Bush administration and the SEC had proposed.

Chuck Schumer was involved with legislation to address the Darfur genocide.

Chuck Schumer voted for measures to help increase the efficiency of peacekeepers serving in Darfur.

In 2009, Chuck Schumer criticized Scotland's release of convicted Pan Am Flight 103 bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and called for the United States to impose economic sanctions on the United Kingdom if Megrahi's release was tied to a massive oil deal between the United Kingdom and Libya.

In July 2017, Chuck Schumer voted for the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, which grouped together sanctions against Iran, Russia, and North Korea.

In October 2020, Chuck Schumer called on the Trump administration to immediately suspend US military aid to Azerbaijan, sent through the Pentagon's "building partner assistance program".

Senate majority leader Bill Frist subsequently asked for a quorum call that effectively gnarled proceedings, Chuck Schumer afterward opining that the Democrats had "bent over backwards to try and accommodate the Republican schedule" and that Frist's move meant Republicans did not want a vote at all.

In 2017, Chuck Schumer wrote to Trump advocating for a block on China that would prevent it from purchasing more American companies to increase pressure on Beijing to help rein in North Korea's nuclear missile program.

Chuck Schumer planned to tell the White House, then his Senate colleagues, and then the public, but the White House leaked the news during the Republican debate in what CBS News described as an "apparent attempt to limit coverage".

Arms control expert Jeffrey Lewis derided Chuck Schumer's decision, noting that Chuck Schumer was making factually incorrect claims about the amount of time in which the treaty would allow inspection of Iranian nuclear facilities.

Nat Hentoff of the Village Voice wrote in November 2006 that "the loquacious Chuck Schumer has been indifferent to the administration's war on the Constitution and on our laws and treaties", particularly on the issue of torture.

Chuck Schumer was the first senator to call for US support for Kurdish independence after the 2017 Kurdistan Region independence referendum, releasing a resolution calling for the US government to change its policy to "support a political process that addresses the aspirations of the Kurds for an independent state".

Chuck Schumer called upon Iraq to "engage in a dialogue and peacefully determine the best way to accommodate the well-deserved and legitimate aspirations of the Iraqi Kurds".

Chuck Schumer is a co-sponsor of a Senate resolution expressing objection to the UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which condemned Israeli settlement-building in the occupied Palestinian territories as a violation of international law.

In May 2017, Chuck Schumer co-sponsored the Israel Anti-Boycott Act, Senate Bill 720, which made it a federal crime, punishable by a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment, for Americans to encourage or participate in boycotts against Israel and Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories if protesting actions by the Israeli government.

Chuck Schumer introduced a Senate resolution celebrating the 50th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem.

In February 2017, Chuck Schumer said that North Korea had proved itself to be "an irresponsible nation in every way" and that China could be used to curtail North Korea as most of North Korea's imports and exports go through China.

In December 2016, Chuck Schumer joined John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Jack Reed in a letter to Majority Leader McConnell urging the formation of a Senate select committee on cyber.

Chuck Schumer said the panel would focus on Russian meddling and potential threats from other countries such as China and Iran.

In December 2016, Chuck Schumer demanded a congressional inquiry into Russian meddling in US affairs.

Chuck Schumer spearheaded a non-binding resolution in July 2018 "warning President Trump not to let the Russian government question diplomats and other officials".

The Assault Weapons Ban, which banned semi-automatic rifles, shotguns, and handguns with certain features, expired in September 2004 despite attempts by Chuck Schumer to extend it.

Chuck Schumer was one of 16 senators to vote against the Vitter Amendment, which prohibited the confiscation of legally owned firearms during a disaster.

Chuck Schumer has produced a letter from the NYPD stating that neither he nor his wife, Iris Weinshall, has a handgun license from NYC.

In January 2019, Chuck Schumer was one of 40 senators to introduce the Background Check Expansion Act, which would require background checks for either the sale or transfer of all firearms including all unlicensed sellers.

Chuck Schumer supported Obama's health reform legislation; he voted for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in December 2009 and for the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.

In 2009, Chuck Schumer proposed that any new government-run health insurance programs follow all the standards applicable to private insurance.

Chuck Schumer did this to "address fears that a public program would drive private insurers from the market".

Chuck Schumer said he wanted "a level playing field for competition".

In May 2017, in response to an amendment by Fred Upton to the American Health Care Act, Chuck Schumer released a statement saying the amendment "leaves Americans with pre-existing conditions as vulnerable as they were before under this bill" and compared it to "administering cough medicine to someone with stage 4 cancer".

In November 2001, Schumer announced hearings on George W Bush's decision to try terrorists in military tribunals amid Washington concerns that Bush would skip the American legal system in handling such cases.

Chuck Schumer said the hearing's two goals were to ascertain whether Bush had the power to form a tribunal apart from an attempt at interacting with Congress and whether a military tribunal was the most efficient instrument.

Chuck Schumer supported continuing to fully fund the FIRE Grant program the Federal Emergency Management Agency administered.

In 2006, Schumer led a bipartisan effort, with Republicans like Representative Peter T King, to stop a deal the Bush administration approved to transfer control of six US ports to a corporation owned by the government of United Arab Emirates, Dubai Ports World.

In March 2018, Chuck Schumer said the bipartisan legislation sponsored by Bob Casey and Pat Toomey would assist the children of deceased first respondents afford college by increasing the availability of Pell grant funding.

Chuck Schumer said firefighters needed "first-rate medical care and treatment" for the work they did and the registry would help "researchers track, treat, and eventually prevent firefighters being stricken by cancer".

Chuck Schumer is one of the Gang of Eight, a bipartisan group of four Democratic and four Republican senators who wrote and sponsored a 2013 comprehensive immigration reform bill.

At the time, Chuck Schumer was the chairman of the Immigration, Refugees, and Border Security subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

In January 2018, Chuck Schumer stated that any agreement on the status of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals before its March expiration would have to be included in the spending bill.

Chuck Schumer offered Trump congressional approval of more than $20 billion for his border wall in exchange for protecting recipients of DACA.

Chuck Schumer called on Trump to change course and said Americans would be aware that he was behind the prevention of Congress from settling the matter.

On June 26,2008, Chuck Schumer took the extraordinary step of publicly releasing letters he had written to regulators about IndyMac Bank, the country's seventh-largest savings and loan association and ninth-largest originator of mortgage loans, which he considered a severely troubled institution.

Chuck Schumer's reported close ties to the founders of OneWest Bank have long been of interest to many action groups.

On June 27,2018, Chuck Schumer formally introduced the Marijuana Freedom and Opportunity Act.

Chuck Schumer voted for the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996.

Chuck Schumer opposed the Federal Marriage Amendment, saying in 2004 that DOMA made it obsolete.

In March 2009, Chuck Schumer announced his support for same-sex marriage, noting that it "was time".

At a private dinner with gay leaders on March 22,2009, Chuck Schumer said he not only supported same-sex marriage, he backed a full reversal of DOMA.

Chuck Schumer had been a staunch defender of low taxes on hedge fund and private equity managers in the mid-2000s, arguing that this was necessary to protect the industry.

Chuck Schumer has been described as an ally of Facebook amid debates around regulating Facebook or probing its involvement in various controversies, including Russian interference in the 2016 election.

In July 2018, Chuck Schumer confronted Senator Mark Warner, and urged him not to lose sight of the need for Facebook to tackle problems with right-wing disinformation and election interference, as well as consumer privacy and other issues.

On March 11,2007, Chuck Schumer became the first lawmaker in either chamber to call for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign for firing eight United States Attorneys.

When Chuck Schumer's turn came to ask his last round of questions, he instead repeated his call for Gonzales to resign, saying that there was no point to further questioning since Gonzales had "answered 'I don't know' or 'I can't recall' to close to a hundred questions" about the firings and didn't seem to know about the inner workings of his department.

Chuck Schumer replied that Gonzales faced a higher standard, and that under this standard he had to give "a full, complete and convincing explanation" for why the eight attorneys were fired.

In 1994, Chuck Schumer joined the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Congress in a campaign to get the IRS to revoke the tax-exempt status of the Palestinian-American charity the Holy Land Foundation, which by the time it was shut down in 2001 was the country's largest Muslim charity.

In June 2010, while speaking at an Orthodox Union event in Washington DC, Chuck Schumer made comments about Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip that were later criticized.

Chuck Schumer pointed to statistics to show that the Palestinian citizens of the West Bank were experiencing "economic prosperity", crediting this to their government's cooperation with the Israeli government on combating terrorists.

Chuck Schumer then criticized the Palestinian citizens of the Gaza Strip for voting for the Hamas militant organization, calling on Israel to "strangle them economically until they see that's not the way to go", while stating that Israel should continue providing "humanitarian aid" to Palestinian civilians.

Chuck Schumer is noted for his love of cycling in New York City, especially around his home in Brooklyn.

In March 2020, Chuck Schumer came under controversy for statements he made about Supreme Court justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, both of whom were nominated by Trump.

At a rally outside the United States Capitol while the Supreme Court was hearing an abortion-related case, Chuck Schumer said that if Kavanaugh and Gorsuch voted against abortion rights, they would have "unleashed a whirlwind" and would "pay the price".

In January 2007, Chuck Schumer published a book, Positively American: Winning Back the Middle-Class Majority One Family at a Time, outlining strategies by which Democrats could court middle-class voters.

One of his aides at the time, Daniel Squadron, helped write it, and they drew from Chuck Schumer's experience helping his party win in the 2006 midterm elections.

Chuck Schumer has been awarded several honorary degrees in recognition of his political career.