Charles Schumer
Charles Schumer, born on November 23, 1950, in Brooklyn, New York, is a prominent Democratic politician and serves as the Senate majority leader. He began his political career at a young age, becoming the youngest person elected to the New York State Legislature and later serving eighteen years in the U.S. House of Representatives. Schumer has built a reputation as an advocate for the middle class, focusing on legislation that addresses safety, health, consumer protection, and economic issues.
His legislative achievements include the Violence Against Women Act, the Brady Bill for gun control, and initiatives aimed at improving banking transparency, such as the "Schumer box" for credit card disclosure. Elected to the U.S. Senate in 1998, Schumer has worked on various committees and has prioritized New York’s economy, healthcare affordability, and education funding. He played a significant role during high-profile events, including the post-9/11 recovery efforts and several government shutdowns, showcasing his influence in national politics.
Schumer's leadership and collaborative efforts extend to legislative battles over significant issues, including the impeachment trials of former President Trump and ongoing discussions about immigration and budget negotiations. As a staunch supporter of social justice and a proactive advocate for diverse communities, Schumer continues to impact both New York and the broader political landscape in the United States.
Subject Terms
Charles Schumer
- Born: November 23, 1950
- Place of Birth: Brooklyn, New York
POLITICIAN
In his government career, Schumer has been a champion of the middle class in sponsoring legislation protecting citizens’ rights in safety, health, economics, and medicine.
AREA OF ACHIEVEMENT: Government and politics
Early Life
Charles Schumer was born in Brooklyn on November 23, 1950 to Abe and Selma Schumer. His father was an exterminator while his mother was a homemaker. Schumer was raised in Brooklyn with his younger siblings, Fran and Robert. He attended Madison High School, graduating as valedictorian in 1967.
Schumer entered Harvard, becoming the first in his family to attend college. At Harvard, he became active in the College Democrats, working on Eugene McCarthy’s 1968 presidential campaign. After graduation, Schumer attended Harvard Law School, graduating in 1974.
After graduating, Schumer returned to New York and ran for the New York State Assembly. At twenty-three, he became the youngest person elected to the New York State Legislature since Theodore Roosevelt. He was in the Assembly for six years. While there, he focused on such issues as regulating rent-controlled housing; protecting cemeteries from vandalism; decreasing noise pollution; and increased penalties for arson directed at houses of worship. In 1980, he ran for and won the seat in New York’s Ninth Congressional District.
Schumer represented Brooklyn and Queens for the next eighteen years. He earned a reputation as a fighter against crime and as a consumer advocate. He sponsored several initiatives, including the Violence Against Women Act, which combated domestic violence and sexual assault. He also contributed to the Brady Bill which mandated background checks for handgun purchases. He collaborated in the writing of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban and of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which organized data on crimes of bigotry and included provisions to assist federal authorities in their prosecution. He was instrumental in creating legislation in the area of banking and finance focused on providing greater disclosure to credit card consumers. His work in this area resulted in better reporting of interest rates charged by credit card companies. A chart that includes this kind of information is printed on all credit statements and is often called the “Schumer box.” He helped fashion the Anti-Car Theft Act, which required manufacturers to mark commonly stolen parts with an identification number so that parts stolen from cars could be tracked more easily, and the Omnibus Crime Bill, which put 100,000 new police officers on the street in 1994.
Life’s Work
In 1998, Schumer was first elected to the US Senate, and he began his first term by promising he would visit each of New York’s sixty-two counties every year; a practice he still continues. He believes this extensive travel keeps him in touch with voters from every part of New York. This is a diverse state, which includes large metropolitan areas, remote mountainous villages, and rural farming communities. He maintains a residence in Brooklyn with his wife, Iris Weinshall. They have two adult daughters, Jessica and Alison.
In 2000, he became New York’s senior senator when Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan retired. While in the Senate, Schumer has made it his top priority to improve New York’s economy. He worked to bring affordable air transportation to upstate and central New York and to bring financial aid to New York City after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
In the area of health care, he wrote legislation to help consumers obtain affordable drugs. In education, he sought legislation to make college tuition deductible for those who were paying it. For his constituents who farmed, he fought for price supports for dairy farmers and crop growers.
Schumer was reelected in 2004. After that election he was placed on the Senate Finance Committee, which has been instrumental in creating legislation related to taxes, trade, Social Security, and health care. He served as chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee until 2008. In 2006, he was appointed to serve as the vice chair of the Senate Democratic Conference. This position is the third-highest-ranking position in the Democratic Party leadership. He was made chair of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, which oversees voting rights, federal elections, and campaign finance.
From 2007 to 2008, Schumer served as chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, which oversees America’s economic policies. In that position, he chaired the first hearings in Congress that investigated the causes of the mortgage and financial crisis and its impact on American families and communities. He worked to secure resources for foreclosure prevention and helped to draft legislation designed to prevent some of the problems that had caused the mortgage crisis. He has also served on the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee; on the Senate Judiciary Committee, for which he is chairman of the subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees, and Border Security; and on the Joint Committee on the Library.
He has crafted or supported legislation on the Consumer Product Safety Commission Reform Act, protecting consumers from hazardous or harmful products; a $2,500 college tuition tax credit for middle-class families; increased funding for state and local task forces dealing with Internet crimes against children; an economic recovery package, sending tax rebates to all Americans filing a tax return; a bill protecting children from online sexual predators by keeping convicted sex offenders off popular social networking sites; efforts to raise the minimum wage; a bill designed to strengthen the national criminal background check system in response to the shootings at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. These all demonstrate a common truth: Schumer is an advocate for those who need one—the consumer, the family with children in college, the individual pinched by the economic downturn, children who are preyed upon on the Internet, individuals who are victims of random violent crimes, and workers in entry-level jobs.
Schumer was easily reelected to his position in the Senate in 2010 and 2016. He continued to be an advocate for consumer protection, same-sex marriage, abortion rights, and homeland security. In 2010, he was a key supporter of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and in 2015, he led a veto override of the 9/11 bill. He also opposed the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. Schumer served as chair for the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee from 2011 to 2017. Starting in 2015, Schumer served on the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration. In 2016, Schumer was unanimously voted the Senate minority leader, making him the highest-ranking Senate Democrat; he entered the position in January 2017. In January 2018, there was a government shutdown for three days after an agreement could not be made between Schumer and President Donald Trump regarding spending a bill to fund the government. During the negotiating process, Schumer encouraged action on behalf of the children left unprotected after the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was rescinded, and was a strong opponent of funding a wall along the Mexican border. This turned out to be only an opening skirmish, however, as by the end of the year, budget disagreements between Trump and congressional Democrats led to the longest government shutdown in US history, lasting from December 22, 2018, to January 25, 2019, more than a month. By this time, though, Schumer had a powerful ally in Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who returned to the top job in the lower chamber after Democrats regained control of that body in the 2018 midterm election. Schumer and Pelosi stood firm in refusing to grant Trump's demand of nearly $6 billion to fund his promised wall along the US–Mexico border; Trump eventually relented and signed an appropriations bill without the wall funding. Schumer also led Senate Democrats in Trump's highly divisive 2020 impeachment trial, although Republicans' firm grip on the Senate, led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, ensured Trump's speedy acquittal. When the Democratic Party regained control of the Senate in January 2021, Schumer became the Senate majority leader. He again led Democrats in a second impeachment trial against Trump, for Trump's role in the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, which began shortly after President Joe Biden's term in office started and ended in acquittal for a second time. According to news reports, Schumer was partly responsible for persuading President Biden to step aside instead of seeking re-election in 2024.
There is a relationship between Schumer’s career and his faith. Schumer has worked for specific legislation regarding hate crimes and crimes directed at places of worship. He has supported legislation asking for higher penalties against those who have committed hate crimes, in general, and against those who are found guilty of arson against places of worship. He is a staunch supporter of Israel and has been a leader in bringing restitution to Holocaust survivors and their families. In the spirit of ecumenism, he nominated Mychal Judge, the New York City Fire Department chaplain and Roman Catholic priest who lost his life in the World Trade Center tragedy, for the US Medal of Freedom.
In Novemeber 2022, Schumer won a fifth term in the US Senate in defeating Republican challenger Joseph Pinion. Contrary to many expectations, the Democratic Party narrowly held its majority in the Senate, which allowed Schumer to remain as the majority leader. Schumer has been described as having a good working relationship with President Joe Biden. The pair served together in the Senate for decades before Biden departed in 2009 to serve as Vice-President to President Barack Obama.
Significance
Schumer has dedicated his life to public service. He moved through a progression of positions, with increasing responsibility, to a leadership role in the US Senate and in the Democratic Party. He came to his position from modest roots—being the first in his family to go to college—and he champions the causes of people from all walks of life.
Bibliography
"About Chuck." US Senate, www.schumer.senate.gov/about-chuck. Accessed 2 Sept. 2024.
Davidson, Roger, and Walter Oleszek. Congress and Its Members. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2009.
Ferris, Sarah and Burgess Everett. "Pelosi and Schumer Pilot Turbulent Biden Agenda Behind the Scenes." Politico, 23 Jun. 2021, www.politico.com/news/2021/06/23/pelosi-schumer-biden-meeting-495722. Accessed 2 Sept. 2024.
Gest, Ted. Crime and Politics: Big Government’s Erratic Campaign for Law and Order. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
McKinley, Jesse. "Schumer Can Take the Insults, if It Helps Keep Democrats in Power." The New York Times, 1 Nov. 2022, www.nytimes.com/2022/11/01/nyregion/chuck-schumer-opponent-pinion. Accessed 2 Sept. 2024.
Nobles, Ryan, et al. "Schumer Had a Blunt Private Conversation with Biden About the State of the 2024 Election." NBC News, 17 July 2024, www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/schumer-blunt-private-conversation-biden-2024-race-rcna162446. Accessed 2 Sept. 2024.
Schumer, Charles E. Positively American: Winning Back the Middle-Class Majority One Family at a Time. Emmaus, Pa.: Rodale Books, 2007.
Strauss, Daniel. "Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer: a Key Relationship to a Successful Presidency." The Guardian, 16 Mar. 2021, www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/16/joe-biden-chuck-schumer-presidency-senate. Accessed 2 Sept. 2024.