At the beginning of the 109th Congress, Chuck was named to the Senate Finance Committee, where he serves on the Subcommittee for International Trade and the Subcommittee on Taxation and IRS Oversight. The Finance Committee is the committee of jurisdiction for numerous laws and Federal programs that directly affect nearly every New Yorker. For example, the Finance Committee must approve legislation related to:

• Social Security
• Medicare and Medicaid
• Anti-poverty programs such as Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Temporary
• Assistance for Needy Families
• Child welfare and foster care programs
• Federal tax law
• International trade, including trade agreements, Trade Adjustment Assistance for workers, and laws related to trade remedies such as tariffs or quotas
• Increasing the public debt limit

Although he just joined the Committee in 2005, Chuck has been working diligently to protect the interests of New Yorkers:

• He has worked to protect Social Security and ensure that current payroll tax dollars to not get diverted to new private accounts, which would shorten the life of the Social Security Trust Fund and lead to an explosion in the size of the national debt.
  
• He has worked diligently to ensure that forthcoming legislation to reform the tax rules related to charities and nonprofit organizations is balanced, fair, and not unduly burdensome to the many organizations based in New York City and across the state.
  
• On energy-related issues, he has introduced legislation to create a new temporary levy on the windfall profits of oil companies, setting the funds aside to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina and Rita; and introduced a bill to increase the amount that Americans can deduct from their taxes when they use their vehicles for business purposes.
  
• As one of the Senate’s leading advocates who made college tuition tax-deductible, he has introduced legislation to increase the amount of the tax deduction for tuition and related expenses, and make it permanent.
  
• He is the leading advocate in the Senate for maintaining the current federal tax deduction for state and local taxes, which currently benefits almost 38 percent of New York taxpayers. He also favors responsible repeal of the Alternative Minimum Tax, which will soon impact most duel-income couples with children in New York.
  
• As the co-author of legislation that has made low-cost prescription drugs more widely available, the Senator has continued to defend the rights of generic drugs to be sold in the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
  
• Schumer has also fought to allow Medicare to use its massive bargaining power to negotiate with drug companies, bringing the cost of prescription drugs down further.
  
• Amid ongoing efforts to renew the TANF program, Schumer has supported increases in funding for child care for low-income families to make it easier for parents to work.