[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 190 (Friday, December 20, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7306-S7307]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       AMERICAN RELIEF ACT, 2025

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will 
proceed to the consideration of H.R. 10545, which the clerk will 
report.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (H.R. 10545) making further continuing 
     appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2025, 
     and for other purposes.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. There will now be up to 30 minutes for debate, 
equally divided.
  The senior Senator from Washington.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I will not use 15 minutes, but I do 
want to just let our colleagues know that I am very pleased that we are 
on the verge of passing long overdue relief desperately needed by 
communities that are recovering from disaster, as well as avoiding a 
damaging shutdown.
  The only reason it took so long and this much chaos to get here is 
that House Republicans chose chaos and chose to follow the whims of the 
richest man in the world. Needless to say, that is not how this should 
work.
  But I am glad that at the end of the day, we will avoid a shutdown 
and get disaster relief out to families and communities that are 
struggling after being hit by hurricanes and fires and floods and so 
much more.
  I worked hard with Members on both sides of the aisle to finally get 
this aid across the line and to make sure we did so in a comprehensive 
way that meets the wide range of critical needs in the country, because 
it is painfully clear there are so many communities that are still 
reeling from hurricanes, wildfires, tornadoes, flooding, and more that 
really do need this support.
  So, despite all the unnecessary chaos and delay, I am glad we are 
finally here, getting this done. This relief will make a critical 
difference for folks who have lost it all and are simply working to get 
their feet back underneath them.
  I urge all of my colleagues to join me in passing this package so we 
can get this over the line and avoid a needless shutdown as we head 
into the holidays.
  Finally, one last important thing. I want to recognize my colleagues 
who helped pull this relief package together, especially my vice chair 
on Appropriations, Senator Collins, who has been a critical partner, 
and our House counterparts, Congresswoman DeLauro and Congressman Cole, 
who have pushed so hard to get this disaster relief done.
  Of course, I want to thank all of our staff, especially Evan Schatz, 
our staff director, who worked so hard around the clock to pull 
together not just the disaster relief in this package but so many other 
critical funding packages and proposals over the last 2 years I have 
been chair of the Appropriations Committee. The work is never easy, and 
I am incredibly grateful to our entire team and to all of our 
colleagues who have been working so hard.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The senior Senator from Maine.
  Ms. COLLINS. Madam President, I rise to urge the passage of the 
American Relief Act. This bill will avert a costly government shutdown. 
Although it is after 12 midnight, we are going to avert it. It will 
deliver much needed assistance to individuals, small businesses, and 
communities working to rebuild and repair in the wake of natural 
disasters. It provides much needed aid to our farmers across the 
country, who have been hit by a tidal wave of harmful economic 
conditions.
  I want to thank the many Senators who have contributed to this 
legislation. In particular, I want to recognize Chair Murray for her 
leadership of the Appropriations Committee during this Congress.
  I hope that in the next Congress, we can bring appropriations bills 
to the Senate floor in a timely fashion to avoid this kind of end-of-
the-year pile-up.
  I do urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I, too, want to 
recognize and thank my outstanding staff for their hard work.


                      Social Security Fairness Act

  Finally, Madam President, I do want to say that it is a great 
accomplishment that tonight the Senate passed the Social Security 
Fairness Act, which will be sent to the President for his signature. 
This is long overdue.
  I want to share with my colleagues one really important fact, and 
that is that 83 percent of those who are affected by the government 
pension offset, which we repealed tonight, are lower income women. So 
this is a great accomplishment to eliminate these two inequitable, 
unfair provisions of the Social Security Act. It is going to make a big 
difference.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Democratic leader.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, this is the last vote not only of this 
evening but of the 118th Congress.
  We yield back all time.
  (Applause.)


                           Vote on H.R. 10545

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. All time is yielded back.
  The bill was ordered to a third reading and was read the third time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The bill having been read the third time, the 
question is, Shall the bill pass?
  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There is a sufficient second.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from West Virginia (Mr. 
Manchin) and the Senator from California (Mr. Schiff) are necessarily 
absent.
  Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator 
from Florida (Mr. Rubio) and the Senator from Ohio (Mr. Vance).
  The result was announced--yeas 85, nays 11, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 339 Leg.]

                                YEAS--85

     Baldwin
     Barrasso
     Bennet
     Blackburn
     Blumenthal
     Booker
     Boozman
     Britt
     Brown
     Budd
     Cantwell
     Capito
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Cassidy
     Collins
     Coons
     Cornyn
     Cortez Masto
     Cotton
     Cramer
     Cruz
     Daines
     Duckworth
     Durbin
     Ernst
     Fetterman
     Fischer
     Gillibrand
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hagerty
     Hassan
     Heinrich
     Hickenlooper
     Hirono
     Hoeven
     Hyde-Smith
     Kaine
     Kelly
     Kim
     King
     Klobuchar
     Lankford
     Lujan
     Lummis
     Markey
     Marshall
     McConnell
     Merkley
     Moran
     Mullin
     Murkowski
     Murphy
     Murray
     Ossoff
     Padilla
     Peters
     Reed
     Ricketts
     Rosen
     Rounds

[[Page S7307]]


     Schatz
     Schumer
     Scott (FL)
     Scott (SC)
     Shaheen
     Sinema
     Smith
     Stabenow
     Sullivan
     Tester
     Thune
     Tillis
     Tuberville
     Van Hollen
     Warner
     Warnock
     Warren
     Welch
     Whitehouse
     Wicker
     Wyden
     Young

                                NAYS--11

     Braun
     Crapo
     Hawley
     Johnson
     Kennedy
     Lee
     Paul
     Risch
     Romney
     Sanders
     Schmitt

                             NOT VOTING--4

     Manchin
     Rubio
     Schiff
     Vance
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Kaine). On this vote, the yeas are 85, the 
nays are 11.
  The 60-vote threshold having been achieved, the bill is passed.
  The bill (H.R. 10545) was passed.

                          ____________________