Schumer advises Biden to declare 'climate emergency' to circumvent Congress on certain agenda items

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer says President Biden should declare a national "climate emergency" as a way to go around Congress to implement parts of his climate agenda.

He also said Democrats are ready to use budget reconciliation to pass Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 stimulus bill.

Reconciliation can be used on certain types of legislation that impacts the federal budget and requires only a simple majority for final passage.

Schumer said the reconciliation tool could also apply to the passage of climate change legislation. 

"I think it might be a good idea for President Biden to call a climate emergency," he said Monday night on MSNBC. "Then he can do many, many things under the emergency powers of the president that wouldn't have to go through – that he could do without legislation.

The New York senator said that when Donald Trump was president he used such powers to build a "stupid" southern U.S. border wall. 

"Which wasn't an emergency," Schumer said. "But if there ever was an emergency, climate is one. So I would suggest that they explore looking at climate as an emergency which would give them more flexibility. After all, it's a crisis."

Host Rachel Maddow asked Schumer whether he's "talking about passing major climate legislation through the reconciliation process" and he replied, "Yes."

He was also asked whether he supports eliminating the legislative filibuster.

"The caucus is united with a belief that I have: We must get big, strong, bold things done," Schumer said. "That's a bottom line. If we don't, I worry about the future of this democracy. If people continue to be disillusioned that this government can't do a thing to make their lives better at a time when so many are angry, so many are sour, so many think they don't have a chance to get ahead, I worry about the future, so we have to get things done."

"Point two: We will not let (Republican Senate leader) Mitch McConnell dictate to us what we will do and not do. Period. And these first five days have shown that. And as I said, my caucus is totally united, from one end to the other, that we're not letting him go forward. Our hope is, now, we have tools that we can use; reconciliation. We can get a lot of the COVID bill done with reconciliation and that's something we certainly will use if they try to block this immediate COVID bill," he continued.

Schumer said Democrats "can even use reconciliation for a much broader proposal" related to COVID-19 economic stimulus and Biden’s “Build Back Better” initiatives.

"We have some tools we can use right now and will not hesitate to use them if Republicans continue to just block. As for other issues, what we're going to do is – we are united in the view we need to bring change," he said. "We are united in the view McConnell is not going to dictate what this Senate does. And we will come together as a caucus and figure it out but I can assure you we will bring real change here; real dramatic change. We have no choice."