Patty Murray

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I urge all of our colleagues who have come to me and to the Senator from Maine to talk about the need for regular order to vote yes now on this motion to proceed. I will have more to say about what we all need to do to keep this process moving, but this vote is important if we want to make sure that Senators will have the opportunity to speak out for their values and their constituents. So I urge a yes vote on the motion to proceed, and let's get going on an agreement, as soon as possible, so Senators can vote and debate and act on amendments. That is what regular order is, and that is what everyone has told me is exactly what they want and what I have been hearing all year from Senators on both sides of the aisle. Let's keep up the bipartisanship. Let's get to work. Vote on Motion

Mrs. MURRAY. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the substitute amendment No. 1092 be considered an Appropriations Committee amendment for purposes of rule XVI, with no other rule XVI points of order waived by this agreement; that H.R. 4366, H.R. 4368, as reported in the House of Representatives on June 27, 2023, and H.R. 4820, as reported in the House of Representatives on July 24, 2023, serve as the basis for defense of germaneness under rule XVI for any floor amendments and that it be in order for floor amendments to amend the substitute in more than one place; further, that it be in order for the following amendments to be made pending and that, at a time to be determined by the majority leader in consultation with the Republican leader, the Senate vote on the following amendments to the Murray- Collins substitute amendment No. 1092, with 60 affirmative votes required for adoption and with no further amendments or motions in order to the amendments: Paul No. 1157, Vance No. 1125, Ernst No. 1123, Blackburn No. 1155, Lee No. 1121, Stabenow No. 1115, Peters-Cornyn No. 1122, Rosen No. 1117, Padilla No. 1139, and Schatz No. 1120.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, let's be clear. To all of my colleagues who told me and Senator Collins and the American people that we have to get back to regular order, that is exactly what we are working to do here. We have been working in good faith to set up amendment votes and to get the ball rolling on this bill. Now there are a few colleagues on the other side of the aisle who are dismissing all of this out of hand, any kind of reasonable agreement to move this process forward, and blocking all of the agreements we put together to move forward. Listen to this. If we all want regular order, a key part of this is allowing Senators to come down, have amendments voted on, and moving forward with an amendment process so Senators can make their voices heard on our funding bills. So we can't move at a glacial pace, and we can't have Senators obstructing this process needlessly. I do hope they reconsider and work with us on a timely, serious process so all Senators, especially those who do not serve on the Appropriations Committee, can come here and speak up for their values and their constituents. I know colleagues are ready to bring forward amendments, some of which I don't agree with and will likely vote against, all of which I am prepared, with my colleague from Maine, to discuss and debate. But the Senate should be allowed to work its will and to debate these issues here on the floor, and the American public should be able to see for themselves where their elected leaders stand on those issues as we consider the legislation that will fund the U.S. Government. That is regular order, but that cannot happen until everybody in this body gets serious about coming to this agreement about how we move this process forward, period. Now, I want to be clear. While there are a few Senators who are determined now to derail this process--this bipartisan process--the vast majority of our colleagues on both sides of the aisle have put forward serious efforts into crafting these genuine bipartisan bills. I know that because the Senator from Maine and I took great pains to make sure everyone could weigh in here. We made extraordinary progress in the Senate Appropriations Committee. I have heard about it from so many of you, on both sides of the aisle, all week. How did we do it? We agreed early on to have an open, bipartisan process for our funding bills--exactly what many Senators have been calling for. We said: Let's stick to the bipartisan debt limit deal, which we all passed in July, and let's keep out partisan poison pills, and let's give Members a chance to weigh in and make their constituents' voices heard. In other words, let's show the American people Congress can actually work. Let's be clear. The bills we are considering aren't Democratic or Republican spending bills. They are bills both sides--Democrats and Republicans--wrote after a lot of negotiation and compromise. Together, this package that we have reflects input from Senators from across the country and across the political spectrum, working on behalf of the people who sent them here. That is exactly why all of these bills in this package passed our committee unanimously. The American people are watching. They are wondering can Congress still work, if we can actually come together and reach common ground, even on something as fundamental as funding our government. They do not want to see grandstanding or chaos. They want to see results. The vast majority of this body wants to show them that we take this job seriously, that we take their problems seriously, which the Senator from Maine and I greatly appreciate. I hope that the few holdouts who are now keeping us from moving forward and reaching an agreement so we can line up amendments and votes will see reason. Let us show the American people that Congress is still capable of working in good faith to help people and solve problems, just like they sent us here to do. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I want to thank Senator Boozman for being such a great partner and for his work on this bill and all the appropriations bills. I look forward to working with him as we continue to try to bring this up and get it rolling and moving on the floor. So I thank him very much. Mr. President, as I said, we are working in good faith to set up amendment votes and get this ball rolling on the bipartisan appropriations package that the senior Senator from Maine and I assembled, along with all of our colleagues on the Appropriations Committee, so we can return the Senate to regular order for the first time in a long time, which many of our colleagues have called for. In the meantime, today, I want to talk about the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies bill that is included in this funding package and why the investments in this bill are so important for our military readiness, for our military families, and especially for veterans across our Nation who have sacrificed so much for us. As chair of the MILCON-VA Subcommittee, I worked closely with the senior Senator from Arkansas, who just spoke, to get input from our colleagues on both sides of the aisle and draft the strongest possible bill, even under tough top lines from the debt limit deal. I am very pleased that the bill we put together, which did pass our committee unanimously, makes crucial investments and gets our military and our veterans the support they need. This bill provides $19.1 billion for military construction--that is an increase over the fiscal year 2023 level--and supports hundreds of construction projects at base installations so we can improve the quality of life for our servicemembers and families, modernize maintenance and training facilities, and make military installations more resilient against growing threats like climate disasters. The $2.4 billion for quality-of-life improvements in this bill will support projects like building new barracks and housing and, just as critically, maintaining existing housing so that the homes military families are living in right now do not fall into disrepair. I am proud that our bill provides funding for eight new child development centers so we can expand childcare access for our military families. These types of quality-of-life investments are essential to our recruiting and retention and overall readiness. More importantly, they are what our troops deserve and what we owe them for the sacrifices they make. This bill also funds other essential military construction projects like training and vehicle maintenance, improving energy resilience on bases, and making sure that our installations are better prepared to face severe weather events because, as our generals and admirals have made crystal clear, climate change is a national security threat, and we absolutely cannot afford to let it undermine our troops and our military readiness. The bill we are considering also includes investments to strengthen our alliances and partnerships around the world, including by supporting NATO infrastructure projects and providing funding to strengthen our global presence, including over half a billion for this work in the Indo-Pacific. I am also glad we were able to include funding to address PFAS and other toxins--forever chemicals--at former installations that could put our communities and military families especially in harm's way. PFAS are a serious health hazard, and they have been found in the water supply at hundreds of military bases across our country, including in my home State. Then, of course, there is the VA funding in this bill, which is just as essential. I am someone who previously chaired the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee. I specifically asked to be assigned to that committee as soon as I came to Congress, and I am really honored to have been the first woman ever to serve on that committee because, as the daughter of a World War II veteran, I take our Nation's commitment to care for our veterans personally. When my father was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, which eventually forced him to stop working, his VA benefits were crucial to making sure he could get the care he needed. So I know firsthand how essential VA care is for veterans and their families, and I am constantly meeting with veterans in my State about their experiences too. Living up to our obligation to those who served our country is simply nonnegotiable for me. I know many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle feel the exact same way, and that is especially true for my partner across the dais on our subcommittee, the senior Senator from Arkansas. We have worked closely together for many years on the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, so I knew when we started on this bill that he was someone who cares deeply about our men and women in the military and takes our obligations to our veterans seriously. In other words, he is exactly the kind of partner you want across the table to negotiate a bill like this with. I am pleased to say we were able, together, to draft a bill that ensures that we keep our promises to servicemembers and veterans by fully funding the VA's budget request. That means increasing funding for mental health and suicide prevention programs since we know, tragically, that suicide is the leading cause of death for veterans, especially our younger veterans. It means increased funding for rural healthcare so veterans in every corner of the country can get the care they need, homelessness prevention programs that help with the challenges of returning to civilian life, and for the caregivers program, which I fought to expand along with so many of my colleagues last year. Of course, it means increased funding for women veterans' care. Women are the fastest growing demographic of our veterans. I am also especially pleased to say this bill includes funding to expand the childcare pilot program that I helped establish because, as I always remind my colleagues, we have a childcare crisis in this country, which is why I worked to include funding to expand childcare sites at our VA facilities so lack of childcare doesn't keep our veterans from getting the care they need. In addition to the VA funding in here, let's not forget that last year we actually passed the largest expansion of VA care in decades by passing the bipartisan PACT Act, and earlier this year, Congress worked to live up to that expansion by passing more than $20 billion in funding for the Toxic Exposures Fund, as part of the Fiscal Responsibility Act. This is already making a difference for veterans who were exposed to burn pits and other toxins. Another crucial investment in this bill is the funding increase for VA infrastructure because we cannot let veterans' healthcare be undermined by the challenges related to VA's aging medical facilities or, for that matter, jeopardized by botched rollouts like we saw with the electronic health record modernization program. I was glad to see that the VA did put a pause on the rollout of the EHR earlier this year--something I had been pushing them to do--and we made sure that pause was reflected in our funding bill because I was raising the alarm from day one about how the botched EHR rollout was hurting Washington State veterans. It is a challenging situation now with EHR. We can't just flip on a switch and fix it, much as I wish we could. But I am watching closely to make sure we see changes that provide real results for our veterans and our VA providers because, at the end of the day, these investments are not just about programs and contracts; this is about our promise to get our veterans the benefits they earned and need to stay healthy--prescriptions, mental health care, cancer screenings, and so much more--and to make sure every woman and man who serves our country in uniform gets the support and the training and the equipment they need to be at their best. Before I wrap up, I also want to say a little bit more about some of the items in this bill I fought hard for that are especially important in my State. When it comes to military construction, there are several projects that I worked very hard to get funding for, like new barracks and a parachute rigging facility at Joint Base Lewis-McChord; bulk storage tanks at the fuel supply in Point Manchester; updated electrical infrastructure at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard to help prevent unexpected power outages; and funding to advance other projects across my home State, like equipment, maintenance, and platoon training facilities. When it comes to support for our veterans and our VA facilities, I pushed to make sure this bill includes funding to help the American Lake VA Medical Center upgrade its facilities and provide quality care and funding for the Tahoma National Cemetery and its work to ensure we honor the veterans we have lost. It is worth noting that while those are some of the projects I am most excited about in my State, we made sure that all Senators on both sides of the aisle could weigh in on this bill, and I know many other Members worked very hard to support similar projects and get funding that is important to their States. So I urge my colleagues to come to the floor and talk about some of the projects you have in this bill and why this funding is so important to your families back home. I also invite them to talk to me and the Senator from Maine about amendments and ideas for how we can make these bills better. Our staffs are working around the clock, and so are we. We do want to set up a managers' package. We do want to set up votes on amendments. We want to get this funding package passed in the Senate and passed into law because--let's be clear--this is a bill that can actually be passed into law, and that is because of all of the hard work and careful consideration and, in many cases, compromise that went into producing this bipartisan bill. This is a responsible bill that we wrote together, Democrats and Republicans. How? By listening to our communities and listening to each other so we can help people solve problems. That is how this process should work. That is what we were all sent here to do. So let's work together and show the American people that Congress can do its job, that it can actually give our communities the resources they need in a timely and responsible way and help people and solve problems. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I submit the following notice in writing: In accordance with Rule V of the Standing Rules of the Senate, I hereby give notice in writing that it is my intention to move to suspend Rule XVI for the consideration of amendment No. 1092 to the bill H.R. 4366.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. I ask unanimous consent that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 2795, introduced earlier today by Senators Tester and Moran.

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I ask that the bill be considered read a third time.

Mrs. MURRAY. I know of no further debate on the bill.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 341, submitted earlier today.

Mrs. MURRAY. I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I want to start today by thanking Senator Collins once again for her partnership in putting together the package that we are now considering. I am very pleased she was able to join me on the floor yesterday as we both spoke about the effort that has gone into getting this bill off the ground. At risk of repeating myself, I would like to speak again about how we crafted the bills before us and urge all of my colleagues to join us to debate and advance this package. Today, we are doing something that many Senators have been calling for, for quite some time, something Senator Collins and I have been hearing about from our colleagues since the moment we took over the leadership of the Appropriations Committee. We are keeping our foot on the gas as we continue returning the appropriations process to regular order for the first time in years. Last night, we began the process to allow the Senate to consider a legislative package of three strongly bipartisan funding bills. Let me just say this again: Getting to this point was no easy feat. I am grateful to my partner on the Appropriations Committee, Vice Chair Collins, for working with me to make this happen and to all of our Members, especially the subcommittee chairs, who worked on the bills in the package before us today. Senator Collins and I knew from the start, if we wanted this to work, we had to write serious bipartisan funding bills that can actually be signed into law. As I said yesterday, that meant a few things. First of all, we are going to have to abide by the topline numbers that were set in the debt limit deal, and I shared my personal concerns about that limit before. They have meant some tough choices because that was agreed on by the House and the Senate for all of us in these bills. But President Biden and Speaker McCarthy shook hands. They shook hands, and we passed this deal in Congress in a bipartisan way. The reality is, we can't produce serious bills if we start by throwing that bipartisan framework out the window. So we didn't do that. We worked within the framework, and I pushed at every stage of the process with my colleagues to make sure we produced the strongest possible bills under those circumstances because we simply have to move forward, not back. Secondly, we understood that we were going to have to work together to find common ground, including on some very tough and thorny issues, and compromise where necessary to produce spending bills that can make it through both Chambers and to the President's desk. That meant avoiding poison pills that could sink these bills. Third, we understood it was important that we give each and every one of our colleagues the chance to weigh in on these bills and the American public the chance to see us work on them. So we held over 40 hearings this spring to assess our Nation's needs for the year ahead. We sought input from all of our colleagues, including requests for congressionally directed spending so Members could advocate for project they know are crucial for their States. Then we held markups with debate and amendments from Members on both sides, and we actually televised the markups for the first time ever so people could follow this debate from home. The result is that we passed all 12 of our funding bills out of committee for the first time in 5 years, and we did it with overwhelming bipartisan support. In fact, all three of the bills that are included in the package we are now considering passed the committee unanimously. As I detailed in my remarks yesterday, these bills provide essential investments for programs that all of our communities rely on. The MILCON-VA bill provides funding to shore up our military installations and improve quality of life for our servicemembers and to make sure that we live up to our obligation to get our veterans the care they need. The Ag-FDA bill funds programs that are critical to making sure our food supply is safe and secure, getting families the support they need to put dinner on the table, and helping our farmers to stay ahead of global competition. And the T-HUD bill, the third one, provides crucial investments to help keep people living in their homes, not on the streets, and to make sure we can get people and goods quickly and safely where they need to go. I look forward to saying more about these bills and how these investments are crucial to supporting our families and growing our economy and securing our future as we continue to debate this package. Just as importantly, I look forward to hearing from all of our colleagues during this time, as well. I hope that everyone will come to the floor to talk about these bills, what they will mean for your State, for your constituents, and what your priorities here are. And I invite all of our colleagues to talk to me and to talk to Senator Collins if you have amendments and ideas for how we can make these bills better, because Senator Collins and I are working now to clear a managers' package and set up votes. Our staffs are still working hard on this, and we are happy to work with your teams--all of your teams--so we can pass the strongest bill possible. We have been working closely together from day one to run an open bipartisan process, to get input from all of our colleagues, and to make sure that everyone can make their constituents' voices heard. We know our work is not done yet, but we are committed to showing the American people that this place can actually work, that Members with different viewpoints can actually come together in a timely, responsible way to get our communities the resources they need and to help people and solve problems, which is why so many of us got into politics in the first place. The American people are watching. Let's show them we are listening. Let's pass this package and continue to get our job here done. This summer, we produced a bipartisan roadmap to fund the government with serious bills that can actually be signed into law. I am glad that, here in the Senate, we are moving right ahead with several of these bills now. I urge our colleagues to work with us to get this done. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. MURRAY. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 10 a.m. on Thursday, September 14; that following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed; that upon the conclusion of morning business, the Senate resume consideration of the motion to proceed to Calendar No. 198, H.R. 4366, postcloture; further, that all time be considered expired at 10:30 a.m.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. I echo the words of Vice Chair Collins and thank her for her tremendous work on this. A lot of work has gone into these bills. All three of them were reported unanimously out of our committee after a tremendous amount of work. To finish that work and to allow all the Senate to speak, we need to vote yes to get on this bill. I urge a ``yes'' vote.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, at the start of the year, when Vice Chair Collins and I took over as leaders of the Senate Appropriations Committee, we announced something ambitious: We were going to return the committee to regular order. The first thing everyone told us was: That is great. We all want to return to regular order. We all want to show the American people that Congress can actually function; that we can work together and solve problems and pass bills to make their lives better. But the second thing they told us was essentially: Good luck. You are going to need it. Well, Vice Chair Collins and I went to work. We said: Look, if this is going to happen, we have to show we are serious about writing these bills that can actually be signed into law. That meant a few things. First of all, it meant we had to work with the funding levels in the debt ceiling deal struck by President Biden and Speaker McCarthy, a deal that I had--and I still have--concerns about and which required tough funding decisions across each of our 12 bills. But the President and Speaker shook hands, and that is the agreement that Congress passed into law. We can't produce serious bills if we start by throwing that framework out the window. Secondly, it meant we had to work together to find common ground, including on tough and thorny issues, and compromise where necessary to produce spending bills that could make it through both Chambers and to the President's desk. That meant avoiding poison pills that could sink these bills. And, third, we wanted to make sure that we had an open, bipartisan process. We wanted to give each and every one of our colleagues the chance to weigh in on these bills and the American public the chance to see our work on them. So we held over 40 hearings this spring to assess our Nation's needs for the year ahead. We sought input from all of our colleagues. We wrote these bills together, and then we held markups for the first time in 2 years. We televised the markups--the first time ever--so people could follow this debate from home. And at those markups, we discussed the draft legislation, considered amendments, and voted on our bills. The result: For the first time in 5 years, we passed all 12 of our funding bills out of our committee, and we did it with overwhelming bipartisan support. Nine of the twelve bills passed unanimously or had just a single ``no'' vote. In total, 97 percent of the votes on our bills in committee were ``yes'' votes. These are not the bills I would have written on my own. They are not what Vice Chair Collins would have written on her own. They are the bills we wrote together, along with our colleagues on the committee and with input from nearly every Senator on both sides of the aisle. They are serious bills that can be signed into law, which is how this process should work. We should come together, look for common ground, and build on it to write bills that solve problems and make people's lives better and give our Nation and communities the resources they need to stay safe and competitive, to grow and thrive. That is exactly what the three bills in this package do. As chair of the Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies, I am pleased to say I was able to work with Senator Boozman to put together a bill that gets our military and our veterans the support we owe them, the support that they need. This is essential to keeping our Nation safe because our ships and submarines and aircraft are only as good as the infrastructure they rely on and the troops who operate them. So this bill provides DOD with $19.1 billion for military construction. That is an increase over fiscal year 2023 levels. This funding will help with construction needs across our country at base installations for projects like childcare development centers to make sure our servicemembers and their spouses can go to work knowing that their children are safe and housing like the barracks project at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in my home State and other facilities across the country to support our troops. It will help make sure that our shipyards, like the naval base in Kitsap and the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, are up-to-date and up to the challenges of this moment. These investments will build our presence around the world, especially in the Indo-Pacific regions, and strengthen our military infrastructure to keep it resilient in the face of threats like severe weather and earthquakes. And I am really glad we included funds to address harmful PFAS chemicals and other toxins at former installations that could put our communities in harm's way. I am also very proud of the work we have done in this bill to support veterans and their families. As the daughter of a World War II veteran, I take the promises we made to those who fought for our country very seriously, and this bill ensures that we keep those promises by fully funding VA's budget request. We are talking about increased funding for mental health, suicide prevention programs, the caregivers program, expanding the childcare pilot program--that continues to be a huge priority for me across all of our appropriations bills--funding for homelessness prevention programs for our veterans, rural health programs, and, of course, women veterans' healthcare. By the way, women are the fastest growing demographic of veterans overall. Our MILCON-VA funding bill also increases VA infrastructure funding so we can begin to address the challenges related to VA's aging medical facilities, and it reflects the much-needed pause and reset happening with the electronic health record modernization program. I was raising the alarm from day one about how the unacceptable botched rollout of that program hurt veterans in my home State, and I am watching closely to make sure we see changes that provide real results for our veterans and our VA providers because, at the end of the day, these investments are not just about programs and contracts. This is about our promise to get veterans the benefits they earned and need to stay healthy, like prescriptions, mental health care, cancer screenings, and more. So the stakes could not be higher for those families, and we owe them that much, which is why I am proud this bill sends a clear, bipartisan message: We are not going to shortchange our veterans and servicemembers, and we will live up to our obligation to provide them with the resources that they need. The next bill in this package--from the Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies-- makes sure we are living up to another crucial obligation, and that is to keep our food supply safe and secure, and support rural communities across our country, because, at the most basic level, we can't have strong communities if people can't put food on the table. That means making sure that the food that is sold in our country is safe. It means protecting families from shortages--so avoiding and mitigating supply chain disruptions, addressing climate crises, like droughts, which can threaten crops we all rely on. It means addressing food insecurity so people can afford--and access--the food they need to keep their families healthy and fed. And it means supporting our Nation's farmers, who are such a huge part of our economy. For example, every day in my home State of Washington, we ship apples, cherries, wheat, potatoes, pulse crops, and so many other commodities across the country and across the world. So I want to thank Senator Heinrich and Senator Hoeven for their very hard work to help put together a bipartisan bill that delivers on those crucial issues. This bill will make sure the FDA has the resources it needs to keep grocery stores and dinner tables safe and to implement the bipartisan cosmetics legislation that we negotiated last year and that many of us worked on very hard to pass. It also includes crucial funding to support our farmers, for example, increased investments in agricultural research. Just last month, I was home and visited my alma mater, Washington State University, which is home to world class agricultural research programs. This funding will help universities like WSU to tackle problems that our farmers are facing, like, in my State, smoke exposure to wine grapes, herbicide resistance, and little cherry disease; not to mention efforts that we need to make to address water shortages, improve our yields, use inputs, and more. The bill also funds absolutely critical nutrition programs like WIC, which is a lifeline that keeps so many families from going under. This bill fully funds WIC at the level included in the President's budget request, and we know that participation and costs for the program are changing. So as we work to get final appropriations bills signed into law, I will keep working around the clock to make sure that no one loses their WIC benefits and no one is forced to be on a wait list. We have got to maintain the strong bipartisan support for that program going forward and continue to fully fund it, and that is a top priority for me. My family had to rely on food stamps for a short time, and thanks to that help that we got when I was young, every one of my six brothers and sisters and I have been able to now grow up and give back to our communities because our country had our back when we needed it. So make no mistake, our investments in WIC are not just the right thing, the moral thing; it is an investment in the future of America. So if I haven't painted a picture yet, investments like this, which maintain our nutrition programs, support our farmers, and keep our food supplies safe and secure are truly mission critical to our Nation's future, but they are also bipartisan. There are things that we can all agree on that are important for America. Finally, this package includes the funding bill from the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Subcommittee. I previously led this subcommittee alongside Vice Chair Collins, as the chair and ranking member, and, I can tell you, investments here are critical to help prevent people from living on the streets or being out in the cold and to get people and goods where they need to go in a safe and timely way. Washington State, like so many other States in our country, has really been grappling with our Nation's housing and homelessness crisis for years. So I am glad that we are able to maintain and build on some key investments in this bill that provide rental assistance to families in need, increase our housing supply, support maintenance for distressed properties, and connect people with healthcare, education, unemployment programs, and other support services. And I hope we can come together in a bipartisan way to do more to tackle those challenges in a serious way in the future, because while this bill does take important steps and includes necessary investments, our housing and homelessness crisis is going to take a lot more than flat funding in most areas and modest funding increases in some programs, which is what was possible to negotiate under the tough budget caps in this debt ceiling deal. When it comes to our Nation's transportation infrastructure, the investments in this bill are especially important in light of some of the derailments and disasters and disturbing close calls we saw this year. I am very pleased that we were able to increase funding for the Federal Aviation Administration so it can address the shortage of air traffic controllers, reduce flight delays, increase efficiency, modernize technology, and critically improve safety, which is so important given the concerning number of near misses we have seen recently. This bill also increases the Federal Railroad Administration's funding for its safety work to make sure we have enough inspectors to keep our rails safe and that we can research important questions to improve rail safety and efficiency. So I really want to thank Senator Schatz and Senator Hyde-Smith for their excellent work putting that bill together. Each and every one of the appropriations bills in the package before us today is the result of an open, bipartisan process that invited input from every single Senator. In fact, that is true for all 12 of the bills our committee passed--all in overwhelming, bipartisan votes. And, as my colleagues know, the Senate Appropriations Committee has plenty of Members on opposite ends of the political spectrum--strongly progressive Democrats and deeply conservative Republicans. In other words, getting here took a lot of hard work, late nights, and early mornings. And we had to really set politics aside, listen to each other, focus on the problems, and find common ground. I think I speak for everyone when I say this work has not been easy. And, of course, I know as well as anyone that our work is not done. I think we all understand a CR will be necessary to see this process through. And we all understand supplemental funding is absolutely essential to respond to some of the urgent challenges our States are facing, like delivering disaster relief that communities desperately need today, paying our wildland firefighters, continuing to have our Ukrainian allies' back, and addressing the fentanyl crisis, not to mention the need, as I have spoken, of addressing the childcare funding cliff that threatens to put childcare further out of reach for too many families. And, of course, even after we pass this funding package before us today, we need to get all the rest of our appropriations bills across the finish line. But by passing this package and the rest of our appropriations bills, we are showing the American people that there is a clear, bipartisan path for us to do our jobs and fund the government. There is absolutely no reason for chaos or a shutdown, and I will continue working nonstop with my colleagues to make sure we get that job done. This was never going to be easy, but none of us came here because we thought it was easy. We came here because we wanted to make life better for folks back home, helping people and solving problems. I have said that a lot during my time here in the Senate, and I have brokered a lot of bipartisan deals, always in service to the people I represent back home, the friends and neighbors that I grew up with. Helping people and solving problems, that is our job, and I would like to see us do more of that together--Democrats and Republicans. So I urge all of our colleagues: Let's keep this momentum going. Let's show the American people that Congress can work for them. There doesn't have to be a calamity over funding the government. Let's show that there can and will be major policy disagreements on any number of issues, but their elected leaders can come together on what we agree on, and we will fund the government responsibly so they don't have to worry about chaos or shutdowns. And on that note, I would like to encourage my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to come to the floor and talk about these bills-- what they mean for your State, what they mean for your constituents, what your priorities are here--and to talk to me and to talk to Senator Collins if you have amendments and ideas for how we can make these bills better, because Senator Collins and I are working now to clear a managers' package and set up votes. Our staffs are still working too, and we are happy to work with your team so we can pass the strongest bills possible. We have been working closely from day one to run an open, bipartisan process and to get input from all of our colleagues and to make sure everyone can make their constituents' voices heard. One issue Vice Chair Collins and I heard about from many of our colleagues is the need to support communities rebuilding after recent disasters. I will have more to say on that in the days ahead, but it is front of mind for both of us and the Appropriations Committee as a whole to take care of our communities that are working so hard to rebuild after the recent horrible disasters, which include, as we know, the wildfires in Hawaii and in areas in Washington State, flooding in Vermont and California, as well as the damage caused by Hurricane Idalia. So, as we get started on this bill, I say to all of my colleagues: Come to the floor. Talk to us. Work with us so we can get this funding package passed, help people, and solve problems. I yield the floor.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I certify that the information required by rule XLIV of the Standing Rules of the Senate related to congressionally directed spending items has been identified in the committee reports which are incorporated by reference in Senate amendment 1092 to H.R. 4366 and that the required information has been available on a publicly accessible congressional website at least 48 hours before a vote on the pending bill.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business for 5 minutes.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, last month, the Gray and Oregon Road wildfires in Eastern Washington caused serious devastation and forced thousands of people to evacuate, including members of my family and members of my staff. While folks on the ground are still assessing the awful scope of the damage and what resources our communities need to recover and rebuild in the aftermath, we already know that these fires burned tens of thousands of acres; destroyed hundreds of buildings, including over 350 homes; and, tragically, the fires were responsible for two deaths. My heart goes out to the many families whose lives have been upended by these horrific fires, including our selfless firefighters, some of whom lost their homes to the flames while they were working hard to defend others'. I am incredibly grateful to all of our firefighters who have worked around the clock for weeks to get these fires under control. And I am also grateful to so many other first responders who helped keep our families safe from the blazes--law enforcement officers who raced door-to-door warning people as the fires approached, dispatchers who worked so quickly to coordinate emergency response efforts, and everyone who helped those in danger, from evacuating families to conducting boat and helicopter rescues, to all of the volunteers who chipped in for the recovery effort. We are all relieved that those fires are now under control, thanks to the heroic efforts of so many firefighters, but communities in Eastern Washington have a long way to go on the road to recovery. So I will absolutely be staying in close touch with folks in my State and on the frontlines and making sure that our families and communities have the support they need to get through this. I am also going to continue to push to bolster our national efforts to prevent and mitigate and respond to wildfires and other extreme weather events, and that has to include more action on climate change because it is painfully clear--and it has been for a while now--that the climate crisis continues to make wildfires like this more common and more severe. Beyond the recent fires in Eastern Washington, my State has seen devastating fires in the Sourdough fire in the North Cascades; fires on our Olympic Peninsula, on Tribal lands, in the Columbia River Gorge; and we have seen high risks for catastrophic fires in literally every corner of my State. Over the last few years, Washington State has seen drier and hotter summers, which means longer and more dangerous fire seasons. And we are not alone. My heart breaks for the communities in Hawaii where the Presiding Officer has seen the impact firsthand. They were hit hard by devastating, unprecedented wildfires last month and are still suffering from that damage. We have to do more to address the climate crisis that is driving increasingly severe disasters. And on another important note, we absolutely must provide more resources for the critical work being done by FEMA and our Federal wildland firefighters to respond to fires across the country. FEMA's disaster relief fund is running dry. The Agency has already been forced to begin prioritizing immediate response efforts over longer term recovery projects. So it is absolutely essential that we deliver the additional resources FEMA needs as soon as possible because leaving behind communities struck by disaster is simply not an option. And we absolutely cannot let Federal inaction result in a salary cut for Federal wildland firefighters at the end of this month. After all they do for our communities, the last thing our firefighters need is to see their pay slashed. I know there is bipartisan support for providing the resources FEMA desperately needs in making sure wildland firefighters do not face a pay cut. I am talking with colleagues on both sides of the aisle about how we can make sure we get this done by the end of the month. But as the Presiding Officer knows, people are hurting right now. But they are also coming together to support survivors and gather donations and rebuild our communities. We need Congress to come together as well so we can tackle the climate crisis, support our wildland firefighters, continue to build on our investments in wildfire prevention and mitigation in a big way, and make sure FEMA has the resources it needs to help our communities. As the Presiding Officer well knows, when there is a fire, you don't ask what someone's politics are; you grab a bucket and go to work. That is what we need to do. I yield the floor.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record a joint letter from me, in my capacity as President pro tempore of the Senate, along with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, regarding the reappointment of Dr. Phillip Swagel as the Director of the Congressional Budget Office.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, last week, we saw an important step to recognize the legacy of our nuclear weapons program and live up to our obligations to the people and communities still touched by that work. And, no, I am not talking about a movie. The new release may focus on part of the story, but there is another important chapter I will not let us overlook or forget, one that takes place in my home State of Washington, one that is not over yet. That is Hanford, where men and women in my State are diligently now doing the hard, dangerous work of cleaning up one of the most hazardous nuclear waste sites on the planet. As some of my colleagues may know, during World War II, the Federal Government established the Hanford Site in Central Washington State to produce the plutonium our Nation needed for nuclear weapons. Hanford wasn't just where they made the plutonium; it is also where they left 177 tanks, 56 million gallons of highly toxic radioactive waste. For decades now, workers have been doing the critically important work and very dangerous work of cleaning up that site. I have fought for decades to make sure the Federal Government lives up to its moral and legal obligation to support our Hanford workers and clean up the Hanford Site, and I am still fighting to make sure we live up to those obligations today. That is why I meet regularly with workers from Hanford to hear about the challenges they are facing and the help they need. It is exactly why I have been pushing so hard to get my Beryllium Testing Fairness Act passed, and I was thrilled that the Senate voted overwhelmingly last week--96 to 2--to add this to the annual Defense bill. My legislation makes sure that workers are getting support to deal with one of the most dangerous threats they face at Hanford--beryllium exposure. This is a serious health risk that can cause severe respiratory disease, irreversible scarring of the lungs, and lung cancer. Now, Congress passed legislation in 2000 providing care to those who have made incredible sacrifices by working on our nuclear arsenal. I fought to make sure this covered the medical costs for those with chronic beryllium disease and provided cash benefits to people who have been diagnosed with that disease. But here is the thing: Not everyone who needs those critical medical benefits for beryllium exposure can get them today. That is because the diagnostic standard is outdated and out of line with current science. Right now, to qualify for advanced medical monitoring, you have to show an abnormal blood test. But if your blood test is borderline for beryllium sensitization, that doesn't count toward your diagnosis at all--even when you are plainly experiencing the effects of beryllium exposure or even if it is your third such borderline result. That is not right, and by the way, it is not consistent with today's science. Workers in America who are cleaning up one of the most toxic and radioactive nuclear sites on the planet should not have to jump through cumbersome and unnecessary hoops and have the care they need delayed or denied all because the standard is outdated. That is why my bill will update that statute and bring it in line with an OSHA rule that was finalized actually under the last administration so that three borderline tests count as conclusive and more workers can get the care they need. Let me take a step back to make clear why this policy matters. Less than a year ago, when I met with Hanford workers to talk about my bill and to hear their stories, I heard from one worker whose name was Tina. She talked about her friends and neighbors, people who power the work at Hanford. She talked about how a colleague's mom got beryllium disease, and then she retired. After many years of working at the site, she is now not chasing her grandkids around. She can't. She doesn't have the lung capacity to run around and play with her grandchildren. It is heartbreaking, and it is not an uncommon story in the Tri-Cities. That is why this bill matters. Yes, it is technical. Yes, it may not seem like a big difference if you are not involved in this kind of work day to day. But this bill will make sure we don't lose precious time getting workers the support they need to manage this awful disease. I am glad we are on track to get this passed into law now, and there is a lot more I want to get done to make sure we are living up to the obligation to take care of those workers. But this is meaningful, important progress. They may not be telling the stories of these workers on the silver screen yet, but as long as I am in the Senate, you can bet their voices will be heard in the Halls of our Nation's Capitol. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, we all share the view that oversight of our assistance to Ukraine and any other nation is critical to make sure it is used appropriately and effectively. That is why we continue to increase our support for the existing permanent IGs and are encouraged that they have space to operate from in Ukraine and are implementing a joint oversight plan. We have also tasked GAO with specific oversight requests. Adding additional layers of coordination would be counterproductive to our ongoing oversight efforts, and involving the Agencies in the selection for the assessment of the lead IG, as proposed in the Senator's amendment, would potentially compromise the inspector general's independence. There is no gap in U.S. authorities, presence, or even additional resources for our oversight efforts that this amendment addresses. We should remain focused on strengthening existing oversight efforts as our support for Ukraine continues. I urge my colleagues to vote no on this amendment. I yield to my colleague from Illinois.