American Relief Act, 2025

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this continuing resolution. We had a strong bipartisan and bicameral agreement among the leadership of both parties at both ends of the Capitol to avert a disastrous and pointless government shutdown, to provide desperately needed disaster aid and emergency assistance, and to provide Congress with the time required to enact full-year funding bills for fiscal year 2025, which is our responsibility.

That bill was a result of a compromise. There were things in it Democrats liked and Republicans did not. There were things in it Republicans liked that Democrats would have preferred to leave out, but that is the nature of government funding bills. They require compromise, which we accomplished with the support of Democrats and Republicans in the House and in the Senate, in order to become the law of the land.

That was true throughout the 118th Congress, despite Republicans' repeated and failed efforts to write extreme and partisan funding bills, and that will be true in the 119th Congress as well.

We are on the cusp of an agreement to move this country forward. Then 2 days ago, a multibillionaire with apparently no working knowledge of our government or of appropriations, someone who is a self-appointed president of the United States, Elon Musk, issued a marching order for House Republicans to go against their own elected leadership and shut down the government.

House Republicans are responsible for any harm and uncertainty brought upon the American people. Should some get their wish for a month-long government shutdown, they will be responsible for cleaning up their mess come Inauguration Day.

Indeed, we are in completely unprecedented times when someone who has no knowledge of government, who has no knowledge of an appropriations process, and who is external to the House of Representatives can make his weight felt here in turning what was a bill that was on its way--a bipartisan bill, a bicameral bill was on its way to achieving its goal of keeping the U.S. Government open. The goal, actually, is providing services to American citizens, to working families, middle-class families, vulnerable families, where our responsibility lies.

The world's richest man, reaping billions in government contracts, is calling the shots in the Republican Party. At the behest of the world's richest man who no one voted for, the United States Congress has been thrown into pandemonium.

It leads you to the question of who is in charge. I thought that there was a Republican majority in this body, not a president Musk majority.

We had a bill on Tuesday that was the result of a year and a half of work and which had the input, as I have said, of Republicans and Democrats. It represented their interests, the interests of their constituents, their concerns, and the needs of their constituents. This bill that we are discussing right now has no such bipartisan input.

This was no deal or no agreement, except for among a small group of House Republicans. The bill removes key provisions to limit the power of pharmaceutical companies, which means our prescription drug prices and what happens to the rising prescription drug prices which families can't get to in order to be able to deal with any illness they have or to save their lives.

It removes a provision to protect SNAP recipients, people at risk of hunger, from the theft of their benefits. It struck a provision from our colleague, Congresswoman Wexton, to support research into treatments and cures for childhood cancer.

I am a cancer survivor. I know what it means to have a cancer diagnosis. I know what it means when parents are told your child has cancer. We want to remove the provision that supports research into treatments and cures for childhood cancer?

It drops necessary pandemic preparedness and response programs, including the strategic national stockpile. I know that is something that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are very concerned about and always work to protect what we do with the strategic national stockpile.

It also drops the necessary efforts for our hospital preparedness programs. That is for hospitals all over the country. I might add, that is really a big problem for rural American hospitals, which are clamoring for these efforts.

It also shortchanges programs to prepare for future public health emergencies, like bird flu, which we now know is striking people on the West Coast of this country in California.

This bill also abandons our bipartisan efforts to ensure American dollars and intellectual property are reinvested in American businesses and workers instead of fueling the China Communist Party's technology and capabilities.

I am deeply disappointed that this bipartisan priority was abandoned after president Elon Musk bullied Republicans into going back on their word. This is Musk, who got rich off of $20 billion in Federal contracts for his companies.

He now makes half of his company's cars at Tesla's $7 billion plant in Shanghai. He clearly does not want to have to answer any questions about how much he plans to expand his business and businesses in China and how many American technologies he plans to sell to the highest bidder.

It is chapter and verse. There are many more pieces of fact about his relationship with China, and he has spent the last few years cozying up to the Chinese Communist Party to protect his own business interests.

The fight is not over. This is something that simply must be done to safeguard our supply chains and our critical capabilities. American policy should be set on behalf of America's workers, not billionaires who cozy up to Communist China.

We must immediately return to considering the bipartisan, bicameral compromise legislation that Speaker Johnson, Leader Schumer, Leader Jeffries, Leader McConnell, and, I might add, the four corners of the Committee on Appropriations, which are the chair of the House Committee on Appropriations, myself as ranking member, the chair of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Senator Murray, and the ranking member on the Senate side of appropriations, Senator Susan Collins. This is the group that constructed the deal on behalf of the American public, and those services are now being shortchanged.

We must unequivocally reject the illegitimate oligarchy that seeks to usurp the authority of the United States Congress and of the American people.

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Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would understand that I am waiting for someone else who was coming, but I reserve the balance of my time.

I would like to take a moment of my time that I have to highlight that we did come to an agreement and acknowledge there are things in this bill that reflect the bipartisan and bicameral agreement on disaster relief. I also might add, as the ranking member on Appropriations, we came to agreement on moving forward on appropriations bills. The supplemental, by the way, includes substantial Democratic wins.

Since the summer of 2023, we have been pushing Republicans for a comprehensive disaster supplemental. I am pleased that we have an agreement on $100 billion in disaster aid, and that includes $8 billion for emergency highway funds, including paying the full 100 percent cost to replace the Key Bridge in Maryland; $2.3 billion for disaster loans for small businesses; more than $3 billion for water infrastructure grants from the EPA; and $1.5 billion for the Army Corps of Engineer projects; $12 billion for community development block grants to assist with long-term housing, infrastructure, and economic recovery needs; and $21 billion in disaster assistance to farmers, to producers. This, by the way, is separate from the agreement on an additional $10 billion for farm aid.

I might add that at the outset of the negotiations I think it is important to know that there were those on the other side of the aisle who wanted to really cut the disaster effort even to have to provide offsets for the disaster. That was very real. Democrats held the line and said, no, no, that we would get $100 billion for disaster aid because of how critically important it is.

I might add, there was agreement, as well as what Democrats talked about on disaster relief. There was also agreement on pediatric cancer and rare disease research, community health centers, teaching health centers, prescription drug reform, pediatric therapies. This was all agreed to. It wasn't that we were saying we don't want disaster relief, you don't want this. We came to a conclusion that these were all of the pieces that were needed to move forward.

I also might add because I am very concerned about our supply chain and what happens with regard to what we transmit and provide for the Communist Party for China, and while I support all of disaster pieces and I supported all the health pieces, it is maddening that the Republicans walked away from that bipartisan priority, the outbound investment to ensure American dollars and intellectual property are reinvested in America's businesses and workers instead of fueling the Chinese Communist Party's technology and their capabilities; and that, again, which can be documented is something that is critically important that it not be there to Elon Musk because of all of his efforts and contracts that he has and the work that he has in China. That should not enter into how we craft a bill that serves the American people and American workers.

It is unfortunate the way that this process has worked out.

You know, we want to and we really need to rely on each other. We need to rely on each other to keep our word that when we have an agreement that we keep that agreement. I said this, as well, yesterday. I think all of us know here in the Congress that the only thing that we have is our credibility and our word. That is what allows us to move forward to trust one another, to move forward on legislation that helps and serves the American people.

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Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 366, nays 34, answered ``present'' 1, not voting 29, as follows: [Roll No. 517] YEAS--366 Adams Aderholt Aguilar Alford Allen Amo Amodei Arrington Auchincloss Babin Bacon Baird Balderson Balint Barr Barragan Bean (FL) Beatty Bentz Bera Bergman Beyer Bice Bilirakis Bishop (GA) Blunt Rochester Bonamici Bost Bowman Boyle (PA) Brown Brownley Buchanan Budzinski Bush Calvert Cammack Caraveo Carbajal Cardenas Carey Carl Carson Carter (GA) Carter (LA) Carter (TX) Cartwright Casar Case Casten Castor (FL) Castro (TX) Chavez-DeRemer Cherfilus-McCormick Chu Ciscomani Clark (MA) Clarke (NY) Cleaver Cline Cohen Cole Collins Comer Connolly Correa Courtney Craig Crawford Crenshaw Crow Cuellar D'Esposito Davids (KS) Davidson Davis (IL) Davis (NC) De La Cruz Dean (PA) DeGette DeLauro DelBene Deluzio DeSaulnier Diaz-Balart Dingell Doggett Donalds Duarte Duncan Dunn (FL) Edwards Ellzey Emmer Escobar Eshoo Espaillat Estes Ezell Feenstra Finstad Fischbach Fitzgerald Fitzpatrick Fleischmann Flood Fong Foster Foushee Foxx Frankel, Lois Franklin, Scott Frost Fry Gallego Garbarino Garcia (IL) Garcia (TX) Garcia, Robert Gimenez Golden (ME) Goldman (NY) Gomez Gonzalez, V. Gosar Gottheimer Graves (LA) Graves (MO) Green (TN) Green, Al (TX) Griffith Guest Guthrie Hageman Harder (CA) Hayes Hern Higgins (LA) Hill Himes Hinson Horsford Houchin Houlahan Hoyer Hoyle (OR) Hudson Huffman Huizenga Issa Ivey Jackson (IL) Jackson (NC) Jackson (TX) Jacobs James Jayapal Jeffries Johnson (GA) Johnson (LA) Johnson (SD) Jordan Joyce (OH) Joyce (PA) Kamlager-Dove Kaptur Kean (NJ) Keating Kelly (IL) Kelly (MS) Kelly (PA) Kennedy Khanna Kiggans (VA) Kildee Kiley Kilmer Kim (CA) Krishnamoorthi Kuster Kustoff LaHood LaLota LaMalfa Landsman Langworthy Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Latta LaTurner Lawler Lee (CA) Lee (FL) Lee (NV) Lee (PA) Lee Carter Leger Fernandez Letlow Levin Lofgren Loudermilk Lucas Luna Luttrell Lynch Magaziner Malliotakis Maloy Mann Manning Mast Matsui McBath McCaul McClain McClellan McClintock McCollum McGarvey McGovern McHenry McIver Meeks Menendez Meng Meuser Mfume Miller (IL) Miller (OH) Miller (WV) Miller-Meeks Molinaro Moolenaar Moore (AL) Moore (UT) Moore (WI) Moran Morelle Moskowitz Mrvan Mullin Murphy Nadler Neal Neguse Nehls Nickel Norcross Norman Nunn (IA) Obernolte Ocasio-Cortez Omar Owens Pallone Palmer Panetta Pappas Peltola Pence Perez Peters Pettersen Pfluger Pingree Pocan Porter Posey Pressley Quigley Ramirez Raskin Reschenthaler Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rose Ross Rouzer Ruiz Rulli Ruppersberger Rutherford Ryan Salazar Salinas Sanchez Sarbanes Scalise Scanlon Schakowsky Schneider Scholten Schrier Schweikert Scott (VA) Scott, Austin Scott, David Sessions Sewell Sherman Sherrill Simpson Slotkin Smith (MO) Smith (NE) Smith (NJ) Smith (WA) Smucker Sorensen Soto Spanberger Spartz Stansbury Stanton Stauber Steel Stefanik Steil Stevens Strickland Strong Swalwell Sykes Takano Tenney Thanedar Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Thompson (PA) Timmons Titus Tlaib Tokuda Tonko Torres (CA) Torres (NY) Trahan Trone Turner Underwood Valadao Van Drew Van Orden Vargas Vasquez Veasey Velazquez Wagner Walberg Wasserman Schultz Waters Watson Coleman Weber (TX) Webster (FL) Westerman Wexton Wied Wild Williams (GA) Williams (NY) Wilson (FL) Wilson (SC) Wittman Womack Yakym Zinke NAYS--34 Banks Biggs Bishop (NC) Boebert Brecheen Burchett Burlison Cloud Clyde Crane Curtis DesJarlais Fulcher Gonzales, Tony Good (VA) Gooden (TX) Grothman Harris Harshbarger Hunt Lesko Lopez Mace Massie McCormick Mills Mooney Ogles Perry Rosendale Roy Self Tiffany Van Duyne ANSWERED ``PRESENT''--1 Crockett NOT VOTING--29 Allred Blumenauer Bucshon Burgess Clyburn Costa Evans Fallon Ferguson Fletcher Garamendi Garcia, Mike Granger Greene (GA) Grijalva Lamborn Lieu Luetkemeyer Moulton Napolitano Newhouse Pelosi Phillips Rodgers (WA) Steube Suozzi Waltz Wenstrup Williams (TX)

Mr. GROTHMAN changed his vote from ``aye'' to ``no.''

So (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and the bill was passed.

The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.

A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

Stated for:

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