[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 179 (Wednesday, December 4, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6813-S6814]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
FEDERAL DISASTER TAX RELIEF ACT OF 2023
Mr. PADILLA. Madam President, as if in legislative session, I ask
unanimous consent that the Committee on Finance be discharged from
further consideration of H.R. 5863 and the Senate proceed to its
immediate consideration.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the bill by title.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
A bill (H.R. 5863) to provide tax relief with respect to
certain Federal disasters.
There being no objection, the committee is discharged and the Senate
proceeded to consider the bill.
Mr. PADILLA. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill
be considered read a third time.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The bill was ordered to a third reading and was read a third time.
Mr. PADILLA. I know of no further debate on the bill.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there further debate on the bill?
Hearing none, the bill having been read a third time, the question
is, Shall the bill pass?
The bill (H.R. 5863) was passed.
Mr. PADILLA. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the motion
to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. PADILLA. Madam President, I thank you for that.
For the folks watching at home, we just passed a significant disaster
tax bill, which is critical to helping disaster survivors across the
country, and it includes bipartisan legislation that I introduced,
along with Senator Wyden and Senator Cassidy.
Our Protect Innocent Victims Of Taxation After Fire Act would make
sure that individuals, families, and entire communities who have
suffered from utility-caused wildfires can receive the full
compensation to rebuild their lives without fear that their settlement
payments will be subject to taxes.
In my home State of California, over 70,000 people have been impacted
by the destruction of the Butte fire, the North Bay fire, and the Camp
fire in recent years.
Now, if you can imagine when you are wading through the ashes of your
former home and thinking about how you can possibly begin to rebuild,
the last thing you should have to worry about is that the government is
going to tax the payment from your legal settlement that already fails
to cover the full cost of your losses in the first place.
Disaster settlement funds aren't income. It is not an asset. It is
compensation for what a family has lost. It is meant to be an
opportunity to begin to rebuild your life--an opportunity that should
not be diminished because our Tax Code is outdated.
And it is not just for my constituents--my constituents looking to
rebuild--utility-caused fires are becoming increasingly common across
the Western United States. This bill we just passed would make sure
that all recent and future wildfire victims throughout the country have
access to their full settlements. That includes those in Oregon and
Hawaii who have either reached settlements or are still working through
the process with the utilities that caused devastating wildfires.
This measure is a commonsense, bipartisan solution to protect
Americans at the most difficult time in their lives.
I want to take a moment to thank Senator Cassidy and Senator Wyden
for their partnership, as well as my California colleagues in the
House, Representatives Mike Thompson and Doug LaMalfa, for their
leadership on the issue in that Chamber. I look forward to seeing the
President sign this bill into law as soon as possible.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon.
Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, while he is on the floor, let me thank
Senator Padilla for our partnership, these many months, and also to
Senator Cassidy. And we Westerners have really strong views about this
because the fires of the West today are not your grandfather's fires.
They are bigger. They are hotter. They are more powerful. They are
leaping over rivers. And the families that my colleague and I are
talking about feel like they have been hit by a wrecking ball.
And after getting clobbered, they are saying to themselves, why can't
I get a fair shake from the government? Why are they hitting me again,
even though I don't have any income--as my colleague has said so well.
These are people who have truly been visited by a disaster. Their homes
and their businesses are burned. Their possessions and livelihood are
gone.
And finally, the Federal Government is showing some common sense.
That is what my friend from California has spelled out. Our effort is
going to lift a big tax burden off these victims of wildfires and other
natural disasters. We are getting rid of a totally unfair tax on legal
fees associated with settlements after disasters. And by the way, we
are fixing something that went haywire in the Republican's 2017 tax
bill.
Now, we have been pushing our colleagues in a bipartisan way for
months to do a bill that addresses this and other issues. I see in the
Chair another very valuable member of the Finance Committee, our friend
from New Hampshire Senator Hassan. And she and I and others had a bill
that got 357 votes in the House of Representatives that included this
important legislation that Senator Padilla and Senator Cassidy and I
have worked on.
I told my colleague that we had our 1,100th townhall meeting where
the victims came and said: Ron, will it ever get done?
And I said: You bet it is going to get done. It is going to get done
in the lameduck session.
They said: Why hasn't it happened earlier?
And the reality is, it should have happened earlier because you don't
get 357 votes very often over there in the House of Representatives. It
doesn't happen by osmosis. It is because my colleagues here are working
in a bipartisan way and wanted to get this done.
So, we wanted, frankly, to do more. We wanted to do it earlier. But I
say to my colleagues that we are going to keep going on the things from
that package that got 357 votes in the House, like research and
development expensing, which our friend from New Hampshire has
championed, and ending double taxation between the U.S. and Taiwan.
But tonight, is an evening when Senator Padilla and I have said,
finally, after all this waiting, we are going to see relief for these
people who have been clobbered by these huge infernos--because that is
the only way to describe our fires, Senator Padilla. These are
infernos. It gets hot and dry on the forest floor. Somebody drops a
match, maybe there is a lightning strike. Kaboom--and those people are
finally tonight, through the work that has been done by my friend from
California, and our friend from Louisiana, and a lot of Senators--
Senator Schatz is another example--we are going to be able to tell
folks in the West--it is only 5 o'clock or so in California and
Oregon--who have been hit by these big fires, they are going to be able
to go to bed tonight with a little relief that the Federal Government
has finally come to its senses and made sure that they are not going to
have this additional tax burden.
So, I want to thank my friend from California for his good work. He
has been a terrific partner. I think it is very fitting that the
Senator from New Hampshire is in the Chair because she, more than
anybody than I know of on our committee, was really putting in the
sweat equity for a bipartisan bill.
This is a good night for the people that we represent in the West. It
is a good night for a lot of other people in this country. And I want
to thank my colleague and the person who has led us on so many of these
issues from New Hampshire, Senator Hassan, because we are finally
getting justice and a fair shake for people who did nothing wrong who
have been visited by these fires and these disasters.
And the Federal Government is showing some common sense, which most
of them, I think, would agree should have been shown quite some time
ago. I thank my friend.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana.
Mr. CASSIDY. Madam President, I rise in support of the Federal
Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2024.
[[Page S6814]]
Three years after Hurricane Ida and months after Hurricane Francine
hit Louisiana, communities are still recovering, and every bit we give
helps. This bill allows Hurricanes Ida and Francine victims and other
victims of natural disasters elsewhere in the country to deduct
qualified disaster-related personal casualty losses from their income,
even when above the standard deduction.
This is not new, and this is not novel. We have done it before. I led
legislation to help the victims of Hurricane Laura and for those
impacted by the great floods of 2016.
By the Senate passing the bill tonight, the bill will go to the
President's desk to be signed into law, cutting taxes for Louisiana
families who will use this money to rebuild. It goes without saying, we
only have to look at North Carolina to say what an impact this can have
elsewhere in the country.
We have to recognize that if a family wants to rebuild, we can give
them a Federal handout, or we can say: Use your own resources.
And these are their own resources. The American people have always
been there to help whoever has had a natural disaster. We in Louisiana
have benefited. We in Louisiana will always help others.
With that, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California.
Tribute to Laphonza R. Butler
Mr. PADILLA. Madam President, I also rise today with the bittersweet
task of saying farewell to my trusted partner for the State of
California, Senator Laphonza Butler, as her tenure here in the Senate
with us comes to end in the coming days.
You may recall that just over a year ago, Senator Butler was
appointed to serve alongside me here in the U.S. Senate. I remember it
vividly. In just a matter of days, she received a call from Governor
Newsom, accepted the appointment, traveled to Washington to take the
oath of office, and introduced herself to the Nation.
That alone is a tall task for anyone--imagine--to be called upon on
such short notice to serve a State of nearly 40 million people--but it
is another thing entirely to be asked to also, in the process, fill the
shoes of the legendary Senator Dianne Feinstein, a titan of California
politics and the U.S. Senate, who served with such honor and dignity
and grace for over three decades, not to mention that she carried on
her shoulders the fate of a narrow Senate Democratic majority. It
literally rested on her appointment and willingness to serve. But as I
think back and reflect on that moment in her decision to say yes, it
takes a trailblazer to fill the seat of a trailblazer.
And Laphonza Butler was certainly no stranger to high stakes. She
knew it and proved it as a union organizer, fighting for workers all
across the Nation; she knew it as the onetime president of California's
SEIU Local 2015, representing members of California's largest home care
and nursing home workers union; and she knew it as president of EMILY's
List--all leadership positions that she held prior to joining us here
in the Senate. So once she did join us here in the Senate, it was no
surprise to me that she hit the ground running. She immediately set up
an office and built a team of more than capable and passionate public
servants who would help her and my office, frankly--we are a tag team,
after all--serve the people of California.
Imagine, as she began to navigate the complex Senate procedures to
effectively represent Californians, she was also learning, in the early
days, how to simply navigate the halls of the U.S. Capitol--with the
help of the legendary Alex Baldonado, I might add.
I was honored to serve alongside her here in the Senate, to offer her
advice when I could and even lend staff assistance. In the year that
has followed, I have been proud to work with her, nominating and
confirming historic judicial nominees to the Federal bench, fighting
for critical disaster funding for Californians in the relief we just
passed a few minutes ago, working to protect and conserve our cherished
public lands, and so much more.
Through it all, Senator Butler worked to also lift up the voices of
all Californians, including through her Youth Advisory Council,
empowering young Californians to get involved in the civic process.
So, Senator Butler, let the Record reflect that it has been an honor
to serve alongside you these past 14 months. While we will miss you
here in the U.S. Senate, I know that your work is far from over and
that our partnership will continue. I have no doubt that I will see you
in the trenches.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California.
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