secure place. >> so we have had lebanese counterpart, with him during this trip. we were discussing separate partners in the region and in europe. provide financial contributions to build out. the types of operational support and perform. and the important role it would have to play in 17 oh one fully implemented. >> i really don't think that i should characterize negotiations. ...

the clerk: mr. schumer, no. mr. cornyn, no. mr. boozman, no. the clerk: mr. fetterman, no.

the clerk: ms. warren, no. the clerk: mr. boozman, aye. the clerk: mr. boozman, aye. allies, france and the uk both have the resolution firmly calls for the release of hostages. and to people reading it there's little difference with this language what you stand on and march. but with the u.s. feel the need to walk the resolution? >> that's a good question. the resolution does call for the release of hostages. but it doesn't do us link the

release of hostages to immediate unconditional cease-fire. we have made clear throughout this process we cannot support a resolution that calls for the ce unconditional immediate cease-fire and d-link sit from the release of hostages. there are still seven american citizens being held hostage in gaza we are not going to walk away from them. we worked in good faith for several weeks to try to get to yes. we have voted for a resolution in the security council resolution already this year the call for a cease-fire. he called for a cease-fire with the release of hostages. that is our position very firmly believe and it went to see the hostages come home. i would kind of turn the question around and asked why isthat the country is pushing ts resolution could not link the

two? what they would not agree to link the cease-fire to the release of hostages. what is it about the release of hostages that they would not support when linked to a cease-fire? it seems to us plain common sense that if there's going to be a cease-fire that hamas should not get to continue to hold hostages. we will continue to look for ways to find consensus with other countries on the un security council because of that language is not something we could support. support out early this morning this resolution did contain a call for the release of hostages. whatse was defective? >> the defective was it was not linked to. we believe it's important get a cease-fire that secures elisa release of hostages. we propose, we propose a number of different formulations that would link the two. a call for a cease fire that includes a release of hostages.

i do not understand hold on. i do not understand what could be objectionable about that language? >> what to be objectionable about the language question cooks what is objectionable to us as it calls for israel. [inaudible] it calls for an immediate cease-fire we do not think hamas district must be clear and people talk about immediate cease-fire what they mean is for israel to immediately stop fighting for you to think hamas is going to respect un security council resolution calling for the release of hostages? we know we don't think they will at all. we think they ought to be linked together. hold on international support, with the backing of every country in the world behind the proposal.

were disappointed we cannot do it here. would you prefer the hostage release be put in sentence before the cease-fire? what to think it needs to be linked together. >> how much more can there be? what if you could say a bunch of different alternative formulations. a cease-fire that wrote the eye cease-fire and. [inaudible] >> maybe not exactly what you propose a number of different for the life of me cannot understand why they were not accepted the parties backing the resolution really wanted to get to the capacity of the security council. >> the question do you think it has achieved its goals? >> i will let israel speak to

assessing its military objectives. i was in behalf of the united states what we have seen is them accomplish a number of important objectives. you look at what they outlined the opening of this conflict. they wanted to go into lebanon to clear out hezbollah close to the border. we have seen them over the course of the last couple months be quite effective in clearing out hezbollah infrastructure close to the border which is why it would be believe they push kamala harris back it's important to have a diplomatic resolution that allowed the lebanese armed forces to come in. effectively patrolled the area on the area of southern lebanon i return forces. [inaudible]

>> i get to the underlying issues in the proposal and just not going to speak to it. it's still under negotiation. ask what tools in this agreement are you ready to send american troops for the implementation? >> so, i respect the continued attempts to get me too talk about underlying issues in the proposal. you should not read one way or the other might refusal to comment on them or anything but before me here. disappointed draw a bright line when it comes to this proposal i don't because we commenting on it. >> how could they see houthi won't be. >> again there's a proposal we are working i'm not going to comment on. but of course the supply of arms

into lebanon is something that's been a great source of destabilization. >> thank you. was said one of the fruits of his visit to tehran of the uranium movie in the right direction. you sure that assessment? >> and we take that back and get you an answer. cooks are you willing to give iran a chance and not push forward with none on for noncompliance. >> we continued to see style tightly coordinate with our partners if you have any announcements to make today.

come back tomorrow i'm not going to preview it from here an action that is not taken place ship. excellent going to go back to the sanctions report suggests the individuals which is mediated by the united states and according to turkey socialists, this chant could you please. [inaudible] cooks with respect to sanctions that is an issue separate and apart from any prisoner exchange deal. members of hamas engaged with er terrorist activities are sanctionable.

[inaudible] is it something you can confirm question. >> no i was not running in 2011 it cannot speak to the substance of that deal. but what i can tell you is it's really a separate question. some of his part of a prisoner exchange deal, i'm not confirming i do not know this is a fix that stipulates it were true for a minute, but it is not in any way give him a free pass to getting out of sanctions supporting terrorist activity 13 years on the road. >> who is supporting? >> the members of hamas redesignated yesterday designated for being involved in terrorist activities. >> yes, thank you. if they ask you about the israeli foreign assistance ukraine if the iraqi prime

minister for national security and publicly they said that under the third section self defending counted these threats on iraq. october will take that back and have not reviewed the specific letter. they are imminent. from all of the pressures are no longer be able to stop from doing this. >> i'm just not going to comment on speculative reports in the

press. [inaudible] went up they did you have in this investigation? >> i do not have it update today. >> if there is no update on the case question. >> the reason we don't have it update in the case the lesson we talked about this i talked to you about what we had found in talking to the various parties in the region they say they reach out to the relevant ngos for information for the ngos enr failed to provide that. i can speak on behalf of either about what is true and what isn't but that's what we've been told by the parties. >> yes, yes, yes. i cannot speak to the veracity of that. >> given this uncertainty in the air of weapons how can the be more reticent of the same reportedly is all these days later. >> again with respect to the

premise there's an underlying factual dispute. let's set aside the premise of the question for a minute and get into the overall question we continue to support israel's right to defend itself against the persistent threat from iran at the same time. to minimize civilian harm. to protect civilians. unprecedented battlefield does not is something that is a concern to giving weapons unclear the factual design with

this incident this another instances it's been a tragic war a horrific war. there's thousands and thousands of civilians dead. the human toll has been an absolute catastrophe which is why we continue to insist israel to more despite the tough conditions they face it's also why we have put diplomatic efforts of the united states trying to end this war. in trying to get a cease-fire that would lead to the release of hostages would lead to an end to the suffering of the palestinian people it's what were going to try to continue to do the human toll has been horrific we went to see a lasting security situation that does not just end the war for a week, a month, but provides lasting security for israelis and palestinians. the top environment. how can you take this seriously if they are in effect we saw

last week after 30 day deadline for true conditions in gaza. >> let me just cut you off there i know it's a long question. you are referring to the scorecard humanitarian groups put out last week there were a number that had like red light, green light. in fact it has been expanded by around 25% print that says there's been no progress on humanitarian causes in fact we went to see pauses longer but there are factual things wrong about that scorecard. let's set the record straight. >> with the deadline for progress or for achievement? >> the deadline was both. in fact we did see significant progress and we saw new achievement.

people in some sense as a misunderstood why we sent that letter. it has produced action. we have seen israel take steps 12 of the 15 areas. i went through some of those last couple of days i don't think any to go through all of them again but i'm happy to fighting to their other things we continue we really went to see is that progress translate to results on the ground. which means trucks and getting to people or having to get to people there difficult security situation trucks are being looted we want to see it sustained and that's what we will continue to focus on. >> people in northern gaza who are on the brink there just post a look at this progress? >> or have been trucks going into northern gaza because of the u.s. intervention in this

matter. because of the letter we sent for weeks there were no trucks going to northern gaza you were correct about that. that's one of the reasons we sent the letter with helmet to be unacceptable. as a result into northern gaza including in the area there's been closed off for weeks that happens because of the letter we sent. >> what does it say such intervention is needed for key allies to allow potential avoidance? >> when just stick at it were going to stick to it. go ahead. they have discovered manufactured in 2020. you know anything about that question. >> i do not they'll be deeply concerning of true though. [inaudible]

and appears with the reaction precook submit clear they need to respect the rights of journalists to go to conduct their jobs. on behalf do you have any response on that? >> we will respond to the members with a letter not publicly. in terms of what? >> we continue to press on it. our advocacy for human rights issues is not connected by any one conference it happened on a daily basis here it started. go ahead.

>> it is not for us to question the transition. thank you so much. i just want to apologize to you. close let's skip through the drama and get to the question. i'm sorry. >> i pose the question please go ahead. after those beautiful words i don't ask a question. >> do you expect to testify before the house foreign affairs. >> you been in communication food made clear secretary was willing to testify would remain willing to testify they did not need us in the subpoena he was happy to come testify we had a scheduling dispute with them. we remain in communication been in communication with them about that question the last few days

to make clear secretary is willing to testify as he has a number of times. working that the committee now. >> in venezuela, what change to prompt secretary blinken for the president elect? >> we over the last several months we've been given time to show progress. modernity came out and said he won the election we saw evidence of the content we've been calling on him for a number of months along with other countries in the region. other countries around the world to produce results. he is not produced results he is not produce the evidence at this time without is appropriate to note not only one the most votes is the president-elect of venezuela. >> anything to do with the lame duck.

comparable oecd punitivemeasure? >> it had nothing to with us being at the end of the administration has it of the fact we were letting some time go by to see if the international pressure that other countries and the united states are putting on would lead to a change in posture on his part. it has not we're going to call the facts as we see you then. in terms of other actions we never preview those before we take them. i should say seldom preview those. >> congressional research report hezbollah continues to hold parliamentary seats and parts of lebanon and operates inside the country with impunity. given u.s. congressional research report with the government white what is your response to concerns of the lebanese people responsible for providing home base to attack

israel? >> i don't think it's any secret been incredibly concerned about the role plays in sight of lebanon. that's why you've seen us continue to support israel's right to defend itself you seen us a call for strengthening lebanese institutions we will continue to do that. >> how can lebanon be considered wallace given his congressional report? >> that we are focused on is trying to get an end to the conflict. and to strengthen lebanon's institution over the long term so it can't play such an important role. i don't think it's appropriate to paint with a broad brush the entire population of lebanon there is a terrorist organization inside the country that's been holding their future aspirations hostage for a number of years now but we're going to continue to try and reduce hezbollah power will continue to cut off funding sources work for

a secure future for the lebanese and israeli people. >> what about the lebanese and government still allowing to exist in the government and not getting them out? >> i think allows probably not the right way to put that. don't you come back to your question go ahead. [inaudible] i'm sorry if you have a question. >> only have two questions. one of them is that in pakistan recently federal government organization issued using vpn the presiding officer: have all senators voted? does any senator wish to change his or her vote? the yeas are 37, the nays are 61, and the motion is not agreed

to. a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the majority whip. mr. durbin: i ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum call with respect to the sooknanan cloture motion be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. by unanimous consent -- the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion, we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of executive calendar number 601, sparkle l. sooknanan of the district of columbia to be united states district judge for the district of columbia, signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on the nomination of sparkle l. sooknanan of the district of columbia to be the united states district judge for the district of columbia shall be brought to a close.

the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote: the clerk: ms. baldwin. mr. barrasso. mr. bennet. mrs. blackburn. mr. blumenthal. mr. booker. mr. boozman. mr. braun. mrs. britt. mr. brown. mr. budd. ms. butler. the clerk: ms. cantwell.

mrs. capito. mr. cardin. mr. carper. mr. casey. mr. cassidy. ms. collins. mr. coons. mr. cornyn. ms. cortez masto. mr. cotton. mr. cramer. mr. crapo. mr. cruz. mr. daines. ms. duckworth. mr. durbin. ms. ernst. mr. fetterman. mrs. fischer.

mrs. gillibrand. mr. graham. mr. grassley. mr. hagerty. ms. hassan. mr. hawley. mr. heinrich. mr. helmy. mr. hickenlooper. ms. hirono. mr. hoeven. mrs. hyde-smith. mr. johnson. mr. kaine. mr. kelly.

mr. kennedy. mr. king. ms. klobuchar. mr. lankford. mr. lee. mr. lujan. ms. lummis. mr. manchin. mr. markey. mr. marshall. mr. mcconnell. mr. merkley. mr. moran. mr. mullin. ms. murkowski. mr. murphy. mrs. murray.

mr. ossoff. mr. padilla. mr. paul. >> good morning. this committee will come to order. today we are holding a hearing to discuss the urgent federal funding needs for communities harmed by the recent natural disasters. before we get started doing to acknowledge briefly this is the first hearing we've had since the election. it is clear some things will look different. one thing will not change and that is my commitment to working with senator collins to keep doing the important work of this committee and a bipartisan manner despite any distractions thrown our way heard this too much at stake for families back home for any of us to throw up our hands. we stillth have to wrap up our y 25 bill so i remain committed to

working together to complete that process as quickly as possible in a manner consistent with the bipartisan bills we've all put so much effort into. back to the subject at hand we will have two panels of witnesses to the first senators ossoff and tillis will speak about the challenges their states are facing. then we will hear from top federal officials at the department of transportation. the small business administration, department of agriculture, department of her being in federal emergency management agency recently received an updated emergency supplemental request from the white house which offers a helpful roadmap it is just the start. we know it will take full time to assess the needs of our communities impacted by the hurricanes and the resources required to recover. i hope we can take what we hear

today and act swiftly in a bipartisan way to provide relief. there is a long history of members coming together quickly in the wake of tragedy. everyone of us knows our states have needed help after disasters before and we will certainly need help again. when disaster strikes it should never matter who was in the white house, who is in the majority, which governors asking for support or how anyone voted in an election or on a last bill. as i said before you do not argue whether to put out a fire. you do not debate how much water to use or how many people to save. you roll up your sleeves, you get to work you get help out the door as much is needed, as fast as possible. right now there are a lot of people in our country needing help and yet this is when the longest timeswa in my memory we have gone without congress providing disaster funding. that is unacceptable. it's well past time we get aid

out to the many people in need after the many disasters we have faced over the past two years. we have seen devastating wildfires including in my home state of washington the utter destruction and maui producing at typhoon hit guam last year that still in recovery we have seen historic flooding and vermont and deadly tornadoes and several of our states. ongoing effort to rebuild of course the two hurricanes that recently tort to the south with catastrophic effect it is clear hurricane milton and hurricane helene were devastating. the full extent of the damage is still coming into focus. we can see the road to recovery more clearly we can also see it is a long one it will take serious federal support. there are still communities without power and clean drinking water. there are miles and miles of roads and bridges still washed

away families are wondering how they will be able to return home if their house is gone. farmers are wondering how they can recover from the loss of crops and poultry and more business owners are wondering how they will ever reopen their doors more than that how the entire city or community will rebuild especially those communities that thrived on tourism. people are desperate for answers help and hope. they are looking to congress for action. we cannot let them down. not now, not ever. that's why it's so important we come together to cast a bipartisan supplemental that meets these challenges. we need to replenish disaster relief fund right now the backbone of our disaster response is running on fumes. we need more funding for the department of transportation emergency relief program. in 2013 when washington state had a bridge collapsed the program was critical to our recovery it's critical now for rebuilding and reopening the key

bridge not to mention the roads washed out by helene. we need funding for community development block grant disaster recovery program which will help get a roof back over their heads. some communities have been waiting nearly two years to know whether any hud disaster funding is coming their way. the needs are piling up the longer we wait to rebuild housing the more it rents will stay high for everyone in those communities. whether you lost your home or not. we need funding at the department of agriculture to support our farmers who lost a season's crop and of course we must replenish the small business administration disaster loan program for sba loans make it possible for renters and homeowners and businesses to get started on things like rebuilding and reopening in mold remediation for president by the members on both sides of the aisle i worked tirelessly to get people to help they need this

committee is going to do everything it can to fulfill our obligations to get money out the door and get support to our communities. but funds are exhausted sba black cloud is growing over 60000 applications already. i really appreciate the work of senator tillis and senator warner to craft a bipartisan bill on this. it was incredibly frustrating to see it block by senator last week we are not giving up or we need to get this done. we need to get done soon. i want to underscore that delay is not harmless it carries its own cost one families and communities will be forced to bear for years. business is a shuttered, jobs lost, family farms bankrupt and bankrupthouses overtaken bye and mold, communities unable to return, rebuild and reopen. families force abandoned houses and communities they love because they cannot afford to stay not to mention people

forced by desperation and necessity to take out high interest loans. every day we don't act the cost growth. and one final point in times of crisis it is actively harmful when political leaders spread disinformation and miss truth about relief efforts. the blatant lies we sell repeated this past fall, particularly in the aftermath of hurricane helene do nothing to help. it undercuts trust and fema andd importantly it discourages people from getting the help they are otherwise eligible for. i know and i trust members of this committee republican and democrat are committed to getting accurate information out there to help as many people as possible. so i urge everyone to listen closely to this discussion today the work ahead releasing in. i hope after this discussion we will be able to work together and a quick bipartisan way to

draft and pass a supplemental that truly meets the challenges our communities are facing. thank you. click thank you chair murray. i want to begin my remarks this morning by commending chair murray for her bipartisan leadership and hard work during the past two years. this hearing is a great example of her approach. it demonstrates her affective commitment to carefully reviewing budget requests it was scheduled very quickly so that we could meet the needs of our nation and exemplify the bipartisan leadership that she has demonstrated. i look forward to continuing to work closely with her in the next two years.

i want to thank our witnesses today particularly senator tillis and also for being with us senator tillis and i have had, i've lost count of the number of conversations that we have had about his state's needs following the recent horrific flooding and western north carolina. i look forward to both senators sharing their perspective with our committee. from the wildfires in the west, flooding in the northeast, and drought throughout the planes and hurricanes in the south it seems that no region of the country has been spared from destruction caused by severe weather. last winter maine's coast was hit with a pair of ferocious storms that wiped out portions of our states iconic working

waterfront. i toured storm battered sites last january and heard from many fishermen, lobster men and women it was the worst storm damage they had ever experienced. in fact the state of maine estimates that it took out about 50% of our fishing infrastructure in our state. when disaster strikes the american people should have faith to help them. that goes for everyone regardless of political beliefs. like many of my colleagues i was angered by recent reports that a fema supervisor had directed relief workers to avoid florida hurricane victims homes that

displayed trump signs. this outrageous acts stands in stark contrast to the very purpose of disaster relief and then trust we have placed in the agency. there needs to be an inspector general investigation to help ensure all of those responsible for playing politics with vulnerable people's lives and homes are held accountable. we must make sure this discrimination and suffering can never happen again. turning to the nearly 100 billion-dollar request we received earlier this week unsurprisingly the largest request is for fema's disaster relief fund. this provides the necessary resources to assist communities, individuals and families

affected by disasters all across our nation. every state in the nation has had a disaster declared in recent years. and has relied on fema for response and recovery. including several main communities affected by it last year's winter storm. the disaster relief fund as the chair noted is rapidly nearing exhaustion with less than $5 billion in the fun today. the current balance is partly due to the catastrophic impact of hurricanes helene and milton which have already cost more than $7 billion in immediate response funding. even before recovery work has begun in earnest. we must replenish the funds so that fema can continue to respond to disasters affecting

any of our states. while fema takes the lead for immediate disaster response the small business administration the department of transportation and housing and urban development worked to rebuild critical infrastructure in small businesses help communities address long-term recovery challenges. today we will also discuss multiple disasters in rural communities in addition to battling severe weather events many farmers are facing an economic crisis net farm income has dropped. many commodity prices have significantly decreased and there has been a major increase and input and operational cost due to inflation. i have heard from farmers in maine who are struggling to stay

afloat. they are doing all that they can to stay in operation. but many are being forced to cease operating. maine alone has seen more than 600 farms shut down in the past decade. once we lose these farms, most often they are gone forever. we must ensure our farmers and rural communities have the resources needed to produce and protect our nations food supply. while this hearing is focused on the need for disaster response funding, i would be remiss if i did not point out one of the best ways we can help our states and communities is to pass the full year appropriations bill. this year our committee came together and passed 11 of the 12 appropriation bills with strong bipartisan support in fact a six

of the bills were reported unanimously. these bills include the base of funding needed to help communities address a critical development and infrastructure needs support our farmers and protect our nation. unfortunately our committee reported bills have languished on the senate's calendar because the majority leader's decision. i hope that we can reverse this approach in the next few weeks. we will work with both sides of the aisle to try to make that happen. and the next congress he must redouble our efforts to restore regular order to promote transparency get bills enacted prior to the start of the fiscal year and give all members a voice in the enactment of appropriation bills. i look forward to our discussion today. thank you madam chair. click thank you vice chair collins out to introduce our

first panel of witnesses and moved to testimony. today it will be hearing from her colleague senator jon ossoff from the great state of georgia. senator thom tillis in the great state of north carolina. both of their states are reeling from the recent hurricanes and we really appreciate you both coming to share what you've seen and heard on the ground about the challenges and needs our families are chasing. we will begin with your testimony center awsat we will begin with the first. >> thank you for this opportunity to brief the committee on the dire conditions faced by georgia farmers in the aftermath of hurricane helene. georgia farmers and farmers and neighboring states are suffering deeply. congress and must proceed urgently to pass disaster relief by the end of the year. georgia agriculture was devastated by this hurricane.

i respectfully urge this committee to swiftly send the full senate a disaster relief bill that includes vital assistance for georgia farmers who are in acute distress and the backbone of george's rural communities interstates economy. hurricane force winds torrential rains destroyed fall crop still in the field. knockdown pecan orchards a million and a half acres of timber land. a million and a half acres from timberland. suffered severe damage to the power grid, to businesses, housing, roads other critical infrastructure. virtually every crop and commodity produced in georgia has been seriously damaged. putting poultry, cotton, beef, cattle, blueberries, tobacco, citrus, soybeans, nursery crops and dairy.

the georgia pecan growers association reports a 48000 acres of pecan orchards were damaged with the loss of nearly 400,000 trees. pecan growers like scott hudson fifth generation family farmer whose family also runs a cleaning and processing plant faces 60 -- 70% crop loss and 20 or 30% tree loss for their older trees which will take 10 -- 20 years to replace. estimate they have lost 85% of their 800 acres of trees they will not be able to save a single tree from the first orchard they planted in 2007. the georgia poultry federation report 495 poultry houses took significant damage including 295 that were completely lost. then at wooton county commissioner jeff davidson

county raise chickens for 31 years saw all 10 of his chicken houses destroyed. many with birds still inside. without our help is not insured or whether he will be able to return to raising chickens. the university of georgia estimates georgia vegetable producers lost 25 -- 30% of the fall crop. tj moore grandfather sort of farming in 1964 now he called his brother and parents grow green beans, eggplant and more due to the storm they expect this fall to sell less than 30% of their normal crop. clinch county blueberries makeup 45% of the local bank which will also hurt next year's crop. i emphasized again one and a half million acres of georgia timberland have been damaged we are projected to have loss of

500 -- 600,000 bales of cotton or nearly one third of our cotton crop. colleagues, the numbers are staggering this is not about numbers it's about families and rural communities without our help the simple fact is many of these family farms will fold they may fold soon they are staring at devastated farmland and orchards. they are deep in the red they are under immense stress. if they go under, our rural communities go under. funding for schools and infrastructure is destroyed the rural way of life in georgia it risks disappearing altogether. we know what we need to do and the fact that my colleague senator tillis and i are here before you urging speed to achieve this essential goal i hope it's testament to the urgency of bipartisan action before the end of the year. we must refuse the temptation to

delay or to get dragged into politics. we must swiftly pass disaster assistance by the end of the year. my constituents and americans in every state hit by this terrible storm and natural disasters for the last several years are counting on all of us. that's why i'm so grateful again chair murray and vice chair collins and members of the committee for the privilege of appearing before you today. thank you. >> thank you very much senate ossoff. >> a chair, feisty friends and colleagues on the appropriations committee. i got up this morning to review the prepared statement by my staff. i am convinced i could not get through without shedding a tear. i'm going to have it submitted for the record. 102 lives lost. 151 homes destroyed.

500,000 businesses affected in disaster declared areas. 5000 miles of road this is north carolina statistics ladies and gentlemen. 5000 miles of road including almost 5 miles damaged and impassable for likely a couple of years. 1300 public bridges and culverts damaged. 160 through water and sewer systems damaged. 20000 farms disaster declared counties with 3.4 and damage. this is the storm unlike any we have ever seen in our nations history. 250 miles inland with nearly hurricane category one hurricane force. after several days of drenching

rain a few days before we have a disaster declared area if you eliminate some that were technically declared disasters if you only count the land mass that is devastation like you've seen in asheville, or vern or earn or big creek or canton, i have thousands of people in harm's way. so, out to the floor last week to try to fix when a problem but let me back up back in august i believe it was august came to me and said tom i hope you will support me on the supplemental i said count me in. i have no doubt that before the end of this season i will probably have to come to you and ask for your support i'm expecting you will be there as most of you already are. actually 99 if you were at last week to get the small business

administration plus $800 million i'd one objection. now folks, i don't think my folks in north carolina, georgia or both of my children are raised in a sister who had a house damaged by the storm, or florida where i was born they don't need tears, they need action. knowledge of any action in the way we would normally respond to storms we need action in a very different way. i am not talking about i was born in florida, raised in new orleans lived in virtually every southern state but i've seen storms in my life but i saw kamil hit mississippi on my way to move to new orleans. i have seen these storms it interestingly enough the topology of the coastal plains you pretty much know what you need to get fixed pretty soon within two years you can probably get most of the infrastructure done. people recovering their lives for decades if ever. that's not what we have in north carolina. we have several river basins

that flood in entire towns part asheville just got drinkable water two days ago. the storm hit 54 days ago. there are some communities that won't have it for the sound near the virginia outline that may be without power until march the media has moved on but the damage is impossible to concede even with what i'm saying today without being there. i would invite any of you to come here or come and see it. i'm going to submit my formal testimony for the record. but we got to do something differently. let me give you an example of what people in florida my home state are doing right now. we are being told parts of florida got hit by milton, parts of florida got hit by helene. parts of florida got hit by debby. can you imagine municipal official right now being told

you've got to distinguish between that utility pole that was debris with debby and debris with milton or debris with helene? the good news is they're not having to distinguish between telephone poles that happen between milton and helene butts, because debby was a little bit outside of the window you've got to distribute that trash if you want to get reimbursed is that really were going to tell the states and local government that's over going to do disaster recovery? i have to get all of my needs six months to be able to fee might recover their communities we won't get to in six months. i thank you all for taking on the appropriation task. i intend to put another unanimous consent request together maybe have another discussion from the junior senator from kentucky. i am going to fight for the people affected not only north carolina but many states i have family, friends, and have lived in. we have got to act we've got to

look at paycheck protection program we have got to take a look at employee tax credits, we should be instructed by covid and to recognize this is a long-term recovery unlike we've ever seen. we can either learn from it and talk about creative ways now or regret it later when some of might western cities are going to dry up. that policy will suffer for your appropriation task i thank you for the work you're doing. the omb request for $100 billion. but that's only the beginning we've got to react differently to storms this may be the first it will not be the last lycos in north carolina we owe it to the american people to be ready to better. thank you. >> thank you very much senator tillis. thank you to both of you for being here today. we will now have our second panel of witnesses come forward and move to their testimony.

and while they're coming forward let me introduce them. we are joined today secretary of transportation pete buttigieg judge. small business administrator, deputy secretary of agriculture, deputy secretary of housing and urban development and fema administrator dan criswell. these agencies that are before us today are on the front line of our nations disaster response efforts. we are very grateful for all of you for joining to share your perspective on the work it needs ahead. we will begin with testimony from each of you and then move to our senators for questions. secretary buttigieg if you are ready we will begin with you. >> good morning and thank you chair murray pre-thank you vice chair collins and thanks to all the members of this committee for the opportunity to speak with you today alongside my colleagues in the biden/harris

administration. a month ago i was in north carolina and tennessee visiting some of the communities impacted by hurricane helene i've seen entire lanes of i-40 demolished and collapsed into the gorge below washed out by heavy rainfall, likely exacerbated by climate change. i spoke to families and small business owners and community leaders about how this catastrophic storm impacted their lives and livelihoods. and about what they need in the short term and the long haul. i met with first responders who have been working tirelessly to help the people in these communities as they contend with the loss of homes, the lost of businesses in the loss of life. in the weeks since the biden/harris administration continued to direct extensive well coordinated support to the communities devastated by the storms. working alongside state and local government, nonprofit groups and volunteer organizations in the ongoing response and recovery efforts. been working to combat

increasingly common unequivocably harmful part of 21st century life the rapid spread of falsehoods that we have come to call misinformation and disinformation. cross digital immediate which in this case include the work of the federal aviation administration which acts to facilitate response and recovery while keeping our airspace safe. as of today u.s. department transportation through our federal highway administration emergency relief program has delivered $187 million in funding to communities in north carolina, south carolina, tennessee, and virginia as well as a federal land management agencies in these states to support immediate needs. these funds are put into immediate used to get roads and bridges repaired and reopened until disruption in the meantime. already we've seen how funds are facilitating recovery, near caesar's head in greenville county south carolina.

continuing ongoing work on i 26 and i-40 which we north carolina, tennessee to restore access to this critical roadways. as invaluable as that work is been the present reality is our department will soon lack the funding to address additional needs resulting from the recent hurricanes and other prior disasters as well as needs and future storms or other disasters. that's because the amount of emergency relief of funding being requested from numerous states far exceeds the amount of money available. helene recovery alone will require extensive ongoing investment to permit rebuild the roads and bridges destroyed by the storm meanwhile we continue to have unmet need for recovery in states like alaska, hawaii, maryland, and nevada that qualify for funding to rebuild transportation

helene recovery alone will extend investment to rebuild the road roads alaska hawaii maryland and nevada. rebuilding the transportation infrastructure after recent disasters. will not be able to provide even partial funding for eligible projects. consider communities in arkansas , california and oklahoma that have been affected by floods, tornadoes and wildfires are the francis scott key bridge in maryland or the past in wyoming. we currently lack the funds to currently rebuild the infrastructure in these communities and many others across the country even though they are eligible. president biden requested approximately $81 million for the er program.

covering the backlog of projects waiting for funding as well as the needs for states from hurricane helene and milton. in additional funding for that, president biden has also requested 57 million for the federal transit administration's public transit relief program to assist transit agencies that were impacted by and supported local response efforts during helene, milton and other disasters. there is an urgent need today for congress to act to provide supplemental funding to support communities across his country grappling with disasters. this would not be the first time congress has risen to the occasion. we sought after hurricane katrina rita in 2005 and more recently in 2018 following harvey irma and maria. the communities in north carolina, south carolina, tennessee, georgia calling on

the act. it can save lives and reduce the cost of rebuilding which is why u.s. dot prioritizes infrastructure created through the bipartisan infrastructure law. law. formula and discretionary funds dedicated to making our infrastructure more resilient. we are seeing the reality and real-time. it is not a fluke, it is not a coincidence. having what they need to rebuild roads and bridges to make them more resilient in the face of extreme weather and other disasters and help people return to normal life as quickly as possible. transportation infrastructure

ranchers dealings with crop loss in families needing for lies. we hope these communities holdback more stronger and resilient for the future. >> thank you very much. administrator guzman. >> thank you so much. the distinguished members of the committee. the disaster loan program and what you need for additional funding. the disaster loans have been proven a resource to help communities impacted by disaster recovery and rebuild. offering direct loans to homeowners, builders and private nonprofits help them get back on their feet. they cover disaster losses not fully covered by insurance or other sources and flexibility for low interest long terms in one year of deferred payments

and no interest accrual. harvard university shows disaster funding makes a difference in communities receiving more, those communities receiving more funding more likely to experience sustained growth versus legging. other federal agencies and other state and local entities they help small businesses prepare for, respond to recover from and mitigate against disaster. fiscal 24 sba approved 24,000 disaster loans totaling 1.74160 billion disaster declarations across the 53 states and territories. behind each loan is a story about brazilian american seeking to rebuild and recover. asheville north carolina i met with the restaurant owners whose businesses remained closed while they repaired physical damage after devastating flooding from hurricane helene. in tampa florida met with the owners of the popular restaurant who weathered hurricane milton

but were closed for several days everywhere that homeowners dismayed to find out they lack the coverage for floods in seeking to rebuild, cleanup and stay in their communities. sba has a vital role to play in the federal disaster response. the disaster loan program has been unable to meet demand since october 15 after a certain demand for disaster loans following helene and melted exhausting all subsidy for disaster lending. hours after kalyna milton, sba staff are on the ground ready to help survivors. sba has been working around the clock to provide up-to-date timely information to constituents and minimize the confusion and delays. sba has also continued to process these loan applications, provide the customer service support and communicate directly with survivors while we wait for congress to appropriate the funding. to originate loans and dispersal

sponsor the more than 12,500 disaster victims that are already in the queue. currently supporting more than 400 total disaster declarations across the nation and managing a portfolio of 2.5 million loans valued at $285 billion. over 3500 employees that have been deployed supporting loan operations and field operations on the ground we have deployed hundreds of staff across 18 different states to operate more than 175 disaster centers for face-to-face support. a lack of disaster funding has impacted recovery across the nation. sba helps those uninsured or underinsured disaster survivors as i said you cannot access help other where. delaying action resort entire cost of capital. this means there are challenges and delays in rebuilding neighborhoods in reopening small businesses. homeowners have been unable to access low interest rate loans to remove debris or eradicate to

return to their homes. survivors who lost a car cannot purchase a new one to take the children to school or get themselves to work. small businesses cannot replace damaged inventory or recovery from business disruption. they need access to sba loans and we hope congress will work to restore funding for this important program. strongly supporting the administration supplemental budget request for sba 2.49 building and funding for sba disaster loan program. the administration's request updates the sba disaster loan administration since the maui wildfires in 2023. the new 2.249 billion includes final funding to support disaster lending, as well as the administrator funds the agency needs a process these loans. review for fraud service collected support disaster survivors on the ground. this funding will allow sba to immediately begin making approximately 900 million loan offers to those more than 12,500

approved borrowers waiting in the queue since funds were exhausted. sba will also continue to process the nearly 48,000 pending loan applications and continue to support new applicants as they continue to come in the door. sba expects lending for hurricane helene and milton will reach disaster levels given the widespread damage across multiple states. including in areas not identified as flood zones where lack of insurance was widespread we have worked closely with thousand senate appropriations committee to provide timely updates about the disaster lending account ever since our 23 supplemental request. in addition to publishing the statutorily required monthly reports, but a serious omega storm show how quickly disaster balances can change. americans do not know where the next disaster will occur but helping our fellow citizens recover from disaster response is the responsibility we all share. sba looks forward to working

with you to secure those resources necessary to fortify the disaster lending program in the future. i look forward to your questions >> thank you. >> thank you chair. thank you vice chair collinson thank you esteemed members of the appropriations committee for convening this crucial discussion on how we show up for american people in the wake of disaster. i asked that you refer to my written testimony for more complete account of the devastation that farmers, workers and rural communities have experienced in recent months. in the work usda has done so far to help them recover. every time i visit a disaster site, i am struck by how close we all are to experiencing homelessness. going bankrupt. relying on the food bank for nourishment. disasters hit everyone in their path. no one deserves the punishment of a storm or a fire. those impacts may include losing your home, losing your business,

and, if you are a farmer, losing the chance to pass your farm on for future generations. that is why people work together in the government across political lines, agencies and levels to clear trees, deliver water and food and to rebuild roads. we all agreed that disaster recovery is an essential role of the government. i think we can also all agreed that government can be cumbersome. there are kinks in the system and i want to talk about those kinks. they slow down the resources that individual families and whole communities need so desperately. timeliness, flexibility and fairness must be the north stars of disaster assistance. for usda, that comes down to doing all we can to keep farmers farming. support people in rural communities as a rebuild. so, i hope that we can spend some time talking about operations, how we get resources out the door most quickly and

deliver to those that most need them. recognizing that the smallest operators in our food supply chain are essential to that chain and are often the most at risk of going out of business after a disaster. when government delivers resources in a way that is both timely and fair, we are able to be there for families, for businesses, communities in their time of need. we are able to build an economic bridge for farmers and producers so they can continue to feed us all. whenever i think about the storms of 2024, i think about a family owned and operated pecan farm that i visited in south carolina this october. hurricane helene had destroyed about 75% of this farmers crop and about half of histories will never produce again. his sons had just invested in a processing facility to support their harvest in the harvest of their neighbors.

the facility was going to cut transportation costs and add value to the whole community of farmers. but, now, there is not enough nuts to process. what struck me most about their story is that while they were waiting out the storm and worrying about the impact on their own future, the farmers sons put on their rain jackets it went into the storm. they were also members of the volunteer fire department. they were first responders. they were making sure before anything else that their neighbors did not lose their lives. that is how crucial community is to disaster response. usda wants to be part of that community. usda is part of those communities. and disaster recovery and assistance work is what we are deeply honored to deal. in agriculture, you cannot plan for every possible impact. so getting money quickly out to those pecan farmers into growers and to producers like him is our solemn responsibility.

let's work on that together. thank you, and i look forward to your questions. >> thank you. >> good morning, chairperson murray, pfister collins and members of this group. it is important to be here at the table because without the $12 billion that we have requested the president, simply said, the homes of thousands upon thousands upon thousands of americans will never be rebuilt. and their communities will have a housing shortage the likeness they have never seen before. since i joined the department in 2021, i have traveled to communities after disaster to talk with people engage the work ahead in nashville, in the wake of hurricane helene i met with local leaders, hurricane survivors, small business owners to learn about what they needed. similarly i went to lee county

florida after hurricane ian and saw the damage there and heard from the people. i visited maui after the wildfires. mayfield, kentucky after the tornadoes and time and time again i heard the same thing. how much they needed their national partners to help them recover. i am confident that through the concerted unified federal efforts we will mitigate damage done to communities and rebuild with resiliency. with congress' support, hud has provided disaster recovery funds to not only drive the long-term recovery of communities, but also to make sure that those communities are better prepared for when the next disaster strikes. we do this by ensuring that rebuilding standards address the hazards that these communities are likely to face in the future and by providing necessary funds to these communities to make their future safer as well. these funds can be spent making

homes and other buildings like hospitals and schools stronger and implement communitywide mitigation projects. and engaging the people in building out what those plans need to be. for instance, in louisiana, $7 million of disaster recovery funds were used to build the new apartment building which could withstand very high winds. that building was 90% complete when hurricane ida hit and august of 21. it was practically unscathed by the storm and it was soon completed and was the only rental units available for some time after that event. in oregon, hud disaster recovery fund supported the construction of a 44 unit apartment complex that housed wildfires survivors. in oklahoma, after a tornado devastated the mobile park

mobile home community disaster funds were used to build back 220 homes to help not just folks who were survivors of the tornado, but other community members as well. that is that the work that these funds do. it is so important for this congress to act with urgency. we must do better. we have a moral obligation to protect people. it takes four years, today it takes four years from the point of an event were there to be housing substantially built after a disaster. that is far, far too long. that is why in addition to having the $12 billion available to hud to help people rebuild, we also need our disaster recovery program to be codified and authorized so that it is therefore americans over and over again so that we can plan

shortly after an event that local leaders and state leaders can plan as they are written response mode what those long-term recovery needs must be you know, i feel it was just yesterday, senators that i had to, on behalf of my family pulled together a care package of batteries, clothing, toiletries, because they are home had been severely damaged. it wouldmi have been great to share with them that there was a program they are ready to make sure that their home could be rebuilt and their neighbors home as well. when i was in nashville, not too long ago, i met dave mr. wilson who had a business and he came up to me, he was a little

nervous, a little piece of paper in his pocket, he opened it up, i don't know how he did the research mr. schumer: madam president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding rule 22, if cloture is invoked on the sparkle l. sooknanan nomination, the senate immediately vote on the murphy, wong, dixon and henry cloture motions in the order in which cloture was filed. further, during thursday's session of the senate, at a time to be determined by the majority leader in consultation with the republican leader the senate vote on the weiss and while himer cloture motions in the order in which the cloture was filed. further, if cloture is invoked on any of the above nominations, all postcloture time be considered expired and the senate vote on confirmation of the nominations at a time to be

determined by the majority leader in consultation with the republican leader, no earlier than monday, december 2, 2024. further, that the mandatory quorum calls for the above cloture motions be waived. finally, that the cloture motion with respect to the desai nomination be withdrawn and the senate vote on confirmation at a time to be determined by the majority leader in consultation with the republican leader during thursday's session of the senate. for the information of members in plain english, this means we're going to have four votes tonight. we're not going to have those two-hour intervening time. we can get them done quickly if we stay in our seats. we'll then vote tomorrow. we have two votes tomorrow morning and one vote before 1:45. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection.

mr. schumer: i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the clerk: ms. baldwin.

mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. the senate will come to order. the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion, we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of executive calendar 650, brian edward murphy, of massachusetts, to be united states district judge for the district of massachusetts, signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory

quorum call has been waived. the question is, is it the sense of the senate that the debate on the nomination of brian edward murphy, of massachusetts, to the united states district court for the district of massachusetts be brought to a close. the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote: the clerk: ms. baldwin. mr. barrasso. mr. bennet.

mrs. blackburn. mr. blumenthal. mr. booker. mr. boozman. mr. braun. mrs. britt.

mr. brown. mr. budd. ms. butler. ms. cantwell. mrs. capito. mr. cardin. mr. carper. mr. casey. mr. cassidy. ms. collins. mr. coons. mr. cornyn. ms. cortez masto. mr. cotton. mr. cramer. mr. crapo. mr. cruz. mr. daines. ms. duckworth. mr. durbin. ms. ernst. mr. fetterman.

mrs. fischer. mrs. gillibrand. mr. graham. mr. grassley. mr. hagerty. ms. hassan. mr. hawley. mr. heinrich. mr. helmy. mr. hickenlooper. ms. hirono. mr. hoeven. mrs. hyde-smith. mr. johnson. mr. kaine.

mr. kelly. mr. kennedy. mr. king. ms. klobuchar. mr. lankford. mr. lee. mr. lujan. ms. lummis. mr. manchin. mr. markey. mr. marshall. mr. mcconnell. mr. merkley. mr. moran. mr. mullin. ms. murkowski. mr. murphy. mrs. murray. mr. ossoff. mr. padilla. mr. paul. mr. peters. mr. reed. mr. ricketts. mr. risch. mr. romney.

ms. rosen. mr. rounds. mr. rubio. mr. sanders. mr. schatz. mr. schmitt. mr. schumer. mr. scott of florida. mrs. shaheen. ms. sinema. ms. smith. ms. stabenow. mr. sullivan. mr. tester. mr. thune. mr. tillis. mr. tuberville. mr. van hollen. mr. vance. mr. warner.

mr. warnock. ms. warren. mr. welch. mr. whitehouse. mr. wicker. mr. wyden. mr. young.

the clerk: senators voting in the affirmative -- baldwin, blumenthal, booker, brown, butler, cantwell, carper, durbin, fetterman, heinrich, hickenlooper, kelly, king, klobuchar, markey, merkley, ossoff, peters, reed, schatz, schumer, shaheen, sinema, whitehouse, wyden e --. senators voting in the negative -- barrasso, blackburn, britt budd daines, ernst, fischer, graham, grassley, hagerty, hoeven, hyde-smith, johnson, lankford, lee, lummis, moran, paul, risch, romney, rounds, schmitt, scott of florida, scott of south

carolina, sullivan, thune, tillis, tuberville, wicker. mr. casey, aye. mr. marshall, no. mr. mcconnell, no. mr. rubio, no. mr. cruz, no. ms. duckworth, aye. ms. hirono, aye. mr. lujan, aye. ms. collins, no.

the clerk: mr. cornyn, no. mr. young, no. the clerk: ms. murkowski, no.

the clerk: mr. vance, no. mr. crapo, no. the clerk: mr. vance, no. we are here for you and for every other person that has been impacted by these disasters so you can help rebuild your communities. thank you, senators, that concludes my testimony. >> thank you. >> thank you and good morning chairman murray, pfister collins and esteemed members of the committee. thank you for the opportunity to testify today regarding fema's requested relief fund. i would like to begin by

expressing my deepest gratitude for the members joining me at this table into the broader network of government agencies, the private sector, nonprofits and others who partner with fema every day. to get there, we work tirelessly to protect and assist americans during disasters. emergency management is built on this collaboration and it is their partnership that is essential to the daily efforts of fema's workforce. before continuing, i would like to address the recent issue about the fema employee who had given instructions to her disaster survivor assistance team that were completely at odds with fema's mission. when my senior leadership team informed me of the situation and provided me with the visual evidence that this employee had issued instructions for her team to avoid homes with the specific political affiliation, my leadership team recommended, and

i directed that we immediately terminate this employee and we did. in the statement i released the same day of this employee's termination, i repeated to all fema employees and the american people that this type of behavior and action will not be tolerated at fema. we hold all employees accountable, if they violate our standards of conduct. when a disaster strikes, it is collaboration that enables us to respond swiftly and effectively. the spirit of partnership has been especially crucial during the responses to hurricanes helene and milton where fema has mobilized over 10,000 personnel and collaborated with more than 30 federal agencies to ensure critical services and life-sustaining resources reached the hardest hit communities. for example, through collaboration with our partners,

fema mobilized 24 urban search and rescue teams that included 1500 personnel, 110 k-9's and 90 swift water rescue resources to conduct rescue efforts. we also pre-positioned 9 million meals, 10 million liters of water, over 300 generators and it worked closely with the department of health and human services to deploy medical capabilities including healthcare site assessment teams and health and medical taskforces. these efforts represent the true spirit of fema's mission to serve and protect every community. however, we now face significant challenges due to increased disaster demands. fema did receive $20.2 billion in the continuing resolution yet the drf has been depleted to less than $5 billion as of today due to the rising operational

needs. this shortfall underscores an urgent reality. the drf need sufficient funding to handle the scale and intensity of today's disasters, particularly, as we face the aftermath of not only hurricanes helene and milton but also the belly wildfires and other emergencies. we have over 100 open major disasters and millions of citizens relying on fema support and our work remains vital to communities and the ongoing recovery process. the surge in demand following recent hurricanes has been unprecedented. in just one month we saw over to .4 million households registered for assistance. breaking records that during previous catastrophic storms. fema has already provided more than $7.8 billion in federal assistance for hurricanes helene and elton.

this amount includes $3 billion for individual assistance and $1.7 billion for public assistance. these needs have rapidly exhausted our available funds and without a supplemental, our ability to respond to new disasters could be jeopardized. earlier this year, fema recognized we would need to take steps to manage the limited resources by implementing immediate needs funding or inf. this process allowed us to focus on preserving necessary funding for each essential lifesaving and life-sustaining act committees but required us to pause over $8.8 billion in funding for critical recovery projects across the country. this pause impacted communities across the country, delaying repairs to vital infrastructure and leaving long-lasting effects on communities capabilities to build back better and stronger. as the balance of the drf

decreases, we are again assessing whether or not we need to reinitiate immediate needs funding. our resource needs, however, extend beyond the drf. programs like the national flood insurance program are under tremendous strain was 74,000 claims filed following hurricanes helene and milton amounting to $843 million. i joined the president and urge legislative action to stabilize dna ip. the increased debt and rising interest costs which threaten the fund's long-term viability. it is very clear that the stakes are high. our communities face more frequent and devastating disasters, they increasingly rely on fema and our federal partners. this is why i strongly encourage congress to fund all agency requests as they all support fema's work of helping communities recover. for instance, cuts to housing and urban development housing assistance programs can leave

survivors without access to housing and increasing sheltering and cost. reducing funding for small business administration disaster loans limits our businesses ability to rebuild. such shortfalls not only strain fema by increasing the workload, but also create coordination challenges among federal agencies. resulting in gaps and inefficiencies to any response. limited funding for mitigation efforts reducing long-term resilience in affected areas leaving them more vulnerable to future disasters and intensifying the bus burden and subsequent events. the administration supplemental request is about ensuring fema along with the federal partners can meet the demands and provide the assistance needed. thank you again for the opportunity to testify and i welcome your questions. >> thank you very much. five-minute questions for our witnesses. i ask all of our colleagues to please keep track of the clock and stay within those five minutes. let me begin. we have heard from all of you.

your testimony as well as from our colleagues on how bad the conditions are on the ground. i want to start by asking about impacts if questions were to continue to delay providing this disaster funding. dot has provided 187 million quick release for states hit by hurricane helene to address some of the urgent repairs and ensure the safety of the traveling public. that was a critical immediate step and it is left the department having less than 120 million remaining for that emergency relief funding. if we fail to act quickly what happens if another hurricane or winter storm hits? >> in short, we would be unable to say yes to the quick release request. we were to turn those around in a matter of hours when possible. the figure is not just quick

release but the program balance. in addition to those very quick answers. twice a year we do the allocations for the overall fund whether that is for recent disasters are ones going back a few years where community is still in recovery. those, too, would be impacted because it is all the same funding. very quickly we would be unable to support any of these disasters. >> thank you. administrator, sba received over 280,000 applications from disaster survivors. that number, i expected to increase in the coming weeks. the sba disaster loan program has been unable to originate new loans for more than 35 days and 16,000 renters, homeowners and businesses remain stuck in the backlog now. talk to us about the impact on disaster survivors and why we need to provide that funding now

>> sba provide that support for those that have insurance. for those that don't have credit elsewhere. these constituents are faced with higher costs of capital or no capital access at all to be able toin rebuild their lives. with delays is further impacts them. i have nearly $1 billion sitting there waiting to deploy as soon as i get funding, plus the additional 48,000 applications that we are still processing. the longer this sustains the further constituents will not be able tosa access the program. for the businesses, it is not just the businesses, the homeowners, renters, it goes to homeowners and renters to get back in their neighborhoods nomination of brian edward murphy of massachusetts to be united states district judge of

massachusetts signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is is it the sense of the senate that debate on the nomination of anne hwang of california to be united states district judge for the district court of clom -- columbia. mr. durbin: i ask unanimous consent that this and all roll calls be ten minutes in duration. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion, we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of executive calendar number 707, anne hwang of california to be united states district judge for the central sdrifblth california. -- district of california. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the quorum call has been waived.

the question is the question of anne hwang of california shall be district judge of california. the clerk will call the roll. vote. the clerk: ms. baldwin. mr. barrasso. mr. bennet. mrs. blackburn. mr. blumenthal. mr. booker. mr. boozman. mr. braun. mrs. britt. mr. brown. mr. budd. ms. butler. ms. cantwell. mrs. capito. mr. cardin. mr. carper. mr. casey. mr. cassidy. ms. collins. mr. coons.

mr. cornyn. ms. cortez masto. mr. cotton. mr. cramer. mr. crapo. mr. cruz. mr. daines. ms. duckworth. mr. durbin. ms. duckworth. two months left of the biden administration majority leader chuck schumer is working to confirm as many nominees as possible before inauguration day the incoming trump administration getting a lot of attention on capitol hill these days. on wednesday vice president elect jd vance was with former representative matt needs to introduce them to senators as a way to confirm his nomination for attorney general and the new congress. these introductions happening on the same day as the house ethics committee considering whether to release its report on mr. gates pertaining to alleged sexual

misconduct, drug use and other accusations. republicans on the committee voted to keep the report confidential for now despite calls for its disclosure by lawmakers and others. more nominees of president-elect trumps administration are also expected to meet with senators in the coming days mr. lankford. mr. lee. mr. lujan. ms. lummis. mr. manchin. ms. lummis. how does hud administration of the funds take into account the challenges of these smaller communities and prevent them from encountering delays as they wait for the state to funnel the money to them. >> thank you, senator.

we recognize that that was an issue during this administration one of the reasons why in additioni. to giving funding to states, we also look to give funding to some of our grantees, our pre-existing grantees at the local level. one of the things we are challenged with is for one of those really small communities, they have never done business with hud before. they have never had to deal with my department. we want to make sure that they are able to execute and have the capacity. with that said we do rely on our stay partners to do the right thing and get that funding to where it needs to be so i do look forward to working with you in this committee and your team are better ways we can execute on that. >> thank you. secretary, the administration's request includes more than 8,000,000,004 disaster assistance through your department. the vast majority as you have

explained would be used to help clear the growing backlog of unmet needs within the federal highway administration's emergency relief program. that backlog includes costs incurred such as $100 million for typhoon damage in alaska to more than 10 million for for severe storm and flooding events in my state. 7 million of unmet needs from damage that occurred over a span of just a few weeks in december of 2023 and january of this year the december storm left 400,000 without power. this is in a state of only 1.3 million people and it essentially left the western town of farming in completely flooded and isolated for a time.

could you give us a better sense of how the $8 billion was calculated. i know you looked at the backlog , but is there also funding for current, more recent storms and upcoming inevitable storms? >> the figure was calculated based on the known backlog. in other words, if we only contemplated those costs that we estimate are already eligible, the 8.1 billion would cover all of that. it does not speak to future disasters which, in principle, would be covered through the regular appropriations into this account, although, i would note that level is set at 100 million and it, is not unusual for the account to disperse more than 1 billion in a single year which is why we often come to congress

for more funding. in terms of the breakdown 4.4 billion is for cost estimates for hurricane helene and elton. another 1.69 billion is for the francis scott key bridge replacement. i shouldpa note that that is net of 350 million which was removed from that figure because it will be recovered via insurance and any other recoveries that could happen would also reimburse the program and reduce the total. and then, the rest is it the emergency relief backlog 2.3 billion covering us disasters and dozens of states including several in maine as you just mentioned. >> thank you. i am very glad that you clarified the francis scott key bridge. we had discussed that on the telephone that this is not 100% federal. it will be net of the insurance

recoveries. i think that that is a really important fact. i have many other questions for sba on how sba could do a better job in supporting our unique small businesses along the coast like our lobster bid and our working waterfront's. i will submit those for the record. thank you. >> i want to thank you and ranking member for not only this hearing but your great leadership as your terms as chairman and ranking member of the committee. i have a pressing issue to discuss but first i want to say a few things about the last 16 years i've served on this committee. i was recently reminded of a story about 2013 during those negotiations. congress decided to add a provision to that bill that would allow monsanto to continue selling products even though a federal court ruled they could no longer do so.

folks reserve to this as the monsanto protection act. i was mad, i was upset, and i voted against that in 2013 to show everybody how upset i was even though i was an appropriate her. after all we know if you are policymaker the easiest boat to make as a no vote on the bill you know will pass. the appropriations chair who is a very strong woman came up to be at the time on the floor, in fact the cloakroom and said, i do not think you really want to be an appropriate her. and i said, why is that. >> she said because you do not support the committee. we do the hard work, we do what we need to do, we negotiated you vote against it. >> i said, i do want to remain on the committee, the answer was yes and the answer is yes now. why? because there is not a better committee in this body when it comes to solving real problems, providing the oversight that is

necessary of our federal agencies and responsibly allocating resources. this committee has always been the best place to have genuine policy debates on virtually any issue. some of my favorites over the years was a national bio and a grow defense facility. keeping white potatoes on the list. dealing with the wild horse population, fighting back against unnecessary regulations and discussing the future of our sugar program. i could go on, even one time we moved an agency to west virginia but, looking back, i do not regret that both back in 2013 because i have feelings about what they do to family farm agriculture and the consumer and besides that, the provision was unconstitutional. but ien did learn a valuable lesson about the beauty of the appropriations process. you get some when did you get some losses. but when this committee is doing its job you can count on real

debates on real issues that are important to americans. if you win a few arguments and you've lost a few arguments, you should vote for these bills and this ovisions of rule 22 of the standing rules committee 711, cynthia valenzue dixon of california to be united states district judge for the central district of california signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is is it the sense of the senate that debate on the nomination of cynthia valenzuela dixon of california to be united states district judge for the central district of california shall be brought to a close. the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote. the clerk: ms. baldwin. mr. barrasso. mr. bennet. mrs. blackburn. mr. blumenthal.

mr. booker. mr. boozman. mr. braun. mrs. britt. mr. brown. mr. budd. ms. butler. ms. cantwell. ms. butler. the senate considering judicial nominations in the final weeks of the 118th congress. majority leader chuck schumer trying to surpass the 234 judicial nominees who are confirmed to a lifetime appointment during the first trump administration. to date, more than 220 judges have been approved while

president biden has been in office. earlier this week house republicans tried to delay further consideration of nominees through a series of procedural maneuvers that required hours of voting on what typically is accomplished by. unanimous consent. president-elect donald trump has asked senate republicans to try to block additional nominations until the start of his new administration when republicans will have retaken control of the chamber with a 53 seat majority. mr. cramer. mr. crapo. mr. cruz. mr. daines. ms. duckworth. mr. durbin. ms. ernst.

mr. fetterman. mrs. fischer. mrs. gillibrand. mr. graham. mr. grassley. mr. hagerty. ms. hassan. mr. hawley. mr. heinrich. mr. helmy. mr. hickenlooper. ms. hirono. mr. hoeven. mrs. hyde-smith.

mr. johnson. mr. kaine. mr. kelly. mr. kennedy. mr. king. ms. klobuchar. mr. lankford. mr. lee. mr. lujan. ms. lummis. mr. manchin. mr. markey. mr. marshall. mr. mcconnell. mr. merkley. mr. moran. mr. mullin. ms. murkowski. mr. murphy. mrs. murray.

mr. ossoff. mr. padilla. mr. paul. mr. peters. mr. reed. mr. ricketts. mr. risch. mr. romney. ms. rosen. mr. rounds. ms. rosen. report best illustrating this market disaster. here is an example of what farm data from the report. it costs an average of $895 to produce 1 acre of cotton in 2024 however the average revenue generated from that same acre is

$569. that is a $326 per acre shortfall loss between expenses and revenues. we all know that revenues must exceed expenses to make a profit losses like this can add up so quickly. if a farmer planted 3000 acres of cotton this year, that would result in a total net loss income loss of almost $1 million $978,000 is what the farmer would lose. obviously, nobody can exist under this. you just cannot recover from that. the types of scenarios we are playing out across the country from all major road blocks. these prices are hurting everyone we are hurting potato farmers, apple farmers, dairy farmers, catfish farmers, you name it. mississippian across the country reporting some of the best

yields ever. that is what is so hard about this. they did everything right yet they will go out of business if they are able to unsecured financing to farm next year. the high cost, the high interest rates in the low prices is definitely the perfect storm. you may be hard-pressed to find a lender able to find its farmer who is that deep in the hole and we understand that. just like the weather-related disasters adverse market conditions are completely out of the farmer's control. examples of the market loss assistance from the past for farmers is often misconstrued as congress just responded to damages called by natural disasters. natural disasters a a common justification, congress also approved market loss assistance because of damaging economic effects. we most recently provided economic assistance to farmers

and the cares act to offset economic disruptions caused by covid-19. there are many more examples of congress doing so during times when crop prices were low. they do not have the safety net, we do not have a farm bill. the ominous appropriations act provided 3 billion market loss payments. due to low commodity prices. the 2000 act appropriation bill provided 5.5 billion to compensate growers for the low market prices. the agriculture risk protection act of 2000 provided money also. so, today the american farmers and ranchers are experiencing literally unprecedented market conditions. so, my question as i'm running out of time here is u.s. da secretary small which i so much appreciate the work you have done.

i was pleased that omb requested that 24 billion but should congress provide s supplemental funding for the department implemented those funds in a swift and effective measure. >> senator smith, thank you for your question. it is our responsibility to deliver, also recognize that i've spoken with farmers as well who are struggling, particularly when it comes to input costs. as congress identifies and makes our hard choices about disaster funding as well as other economic assistance in the wake of fiscal conservatism, we know we have to look deep into which farmers are struggling. that same report you reference does also acknowledge that in the last four years total average net farm income has been up above the 20 year average including one and the rest of the years all above 2014 are all as high as they have been since 2014. that means we really have to

dive into those details about who are the farmers who are struggling and how do we support them both this time and in the future. we are taking on challenges like domestic fertilization production and increase market opportunities. >> the high cost and interest ratesy,, we are expecting to loe 20% of good producers. i do think this is a true emergency in a crisis for our farmers. >> thank you. >> thank you ranking member collins into each of the administration officials who have testified today. thank you for your time, effort. we heard from each of you the stories of individuals you have connected with and where you've gone and visited and the folks in your agencies who are doing the very hard work of helping. the people of georgia and north carolina but so many other states across our country recover from disasters. this is one thing that really should bring all of us together and i'm grateful for this committee and agency.

i have two things that i wanted to mention. a compelling opening statement saying we have to deliver aid differently in response to disasters. senator markowski and i have a bipartisan bill that is both bipartisan and bicameral,he hasa wide number of cosponsors that would compel a federal resiliency strategy. more than one dozen states around the country, my home state of delaware, her home state of alaska as well as the state of north carolina, florida , mississippi, michigan have state resiliency officers. administrator says every dollar we invested resiliency before disaster strikes saves $6 in post- disaster recovery. could you just briefly he nomination of executive calendar 779, catherine henry, of pennsylvania, to be united states district judge for the eastern district of pennsylvania, signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory

quorum call has been waived. the question is, is it the sense of the senate that -- the majority leader. okay. the question is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on the nomination of catherine henry, of pennsylvania, to be united states district judge for the eastern district of pennsylvania shall be brought to a close. the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote: the clerk: ms. baldwin. mr. barrasso.

mrs. blackburn. the senate voting tonight on president biden's remaining judicial nominations with two months left of the current administration. democrats are trying to surpass the 234 judicial nominees that were confirmed to a lifetime appointment during the first trump administration. to date, 220 judges have been approved while president biden has been in office. this year is a vote to limit debate on one of those nominations requiring a simple majority. mr. boozman. >> out of this very large bill. i just wanted to take a minute and ask if you see value in having these members continue to be part of your disaster response teams helping fix up

damaged schools and homes and help clear up debris and whether you think this is an urgent and important piece. >> i talked to my opening about how this is about partnerships and americorps is one of our best partners. the teams go on the field and they do things like staff call centers. we mission assigned them and bring them in to help us and communities. we have mission assigned them seven times in 2024. they are such a critical partner in helping these communities, helping these homeowners with things they cannot do on their own. we also partner with them to create the fema core program where we have hundreds of fema core members that actually supplement our workforce in times of need god in the communities and help us deliver our programs. these programs are critical for the holistic approach to delivering disaster aid. >> each of our agency has a particular relationship and i urge you to look at ways that americorps members can help

expand the impact. if i could, mr. secretary, just one last question. a critical artery not just for baltimore but the whole east coast. it impacted the portable big ten as well as our community. we worked alongside the folks that have been engaged in that urgent recovery. why should the federal government pay some portion of the reconstruction of this bridge? there is at least one member that seems to press back on the idea of having the federal government cover the cost of the bridge. are there other examples of the federal government doing descendents are critical to the timely and complete recovery. >> certainly we regard this as a sort of disaster that is why we have an emergency relief program some of them are natural disasters and others are disasters like the destruction of the key bridge. not of just local or regional but national significance when you consider its impact on supply chains.

of course this is something that happened through no fault of the communities that were directly impacted. i should take the opportunity to clarify the numbers i stated earlier. the 1.69 figure was before we netted out the 350 so the correct answer would be 1.69 les 350 is what is contemplated. that principle is we will recover some funding through things like the insurance but the rest of it, the president has committed to provide because this is what we do for any community that is hurting and certainly when there is an asset of national significance. >> for better or worse all of us at some point will be asking for urgent disaster response funding and i think that that is a key part of this committee and i also recommend to all of my colleagues a bipartisan bill that the senator and i have. thank you very much. >> thank you, senator coons. senator fisher. >> thank you to the chair and ranking member for having this hearing today and thank you to

all the members of the panel for coming. as you know, nebraska saw five separate major disasters declared in 2024 and i have heard from communities across the state that a phased lengthy delays due to fema processing and the red tape that takes place in bureaucracies. many of these communities are still in the process of recovering from d 2019 flooding along the missouri river. one exampleri that i have receny was in the city which backs up against the missouri. the city has waited nearly all of this calendar year on a very minor scope of work change requests. these are small rural communities with limited resources and they are really doing the best that they can to support their residence. i canmr appreciate you and your best that you are doing, your

best with the resources and the staff that you have, but the issues that i am talking about here are not ones of manpower. it is not one of logistics. it is paperwork. it is red tape. will you commit to working with my office and the nebraska emergency management agency to ensure that these impacted communities had received timely responses and are not subject to these really, really long delays which we all know add cost to the project in the long term. >> senator fisher, i've been a local emergency manager and i understand what they are going through. you definitely have my commitment and we are looking for ways to reduce the bureaucracy like recently changing the small project threshold to reduce some of that paperwork worded for the smaller communities. if you have the specific case, i will look into it personally. >> we will be in touch.

they will be happy to hear that hopefully we will get some of that red tape cut for them soon. secretary, nice to see you. i have heard from state dot's that there is a lack of good cystic guidance from the u.s. dot regarding the requirements needed for states to justify building back better after a disaster. the ability for state dot to use federal funds to prevent future infrastructure damage is imperative. how is u.s. dot being provided to our state dot's on the resilience eligibility for reimbursement after a disaster. >> i think your question captures the fact that in many cases it does not make sense to replace something in the exact form fashion it was designed 30, 50 or 100 years ago especially in the face of increasing severe

increasing weather. they do contemplate the ability to do that and we work to make sure that not only is there categorical exclusion designed to cut the red tape for projects that simply are about replacement, but that there is support for enhancing and increasing the resiliency of what is designed including sometimes a significant design change is appropriate given what may have just been learned. the statute does constrain us in some ways, but, often it is possible within the framework of statute to justify those improvements or betterments by showing that if you consider the reduced risk, there really is a cost benefit to those improvements. i would be happy to work with you or your team or any other state you have spoken with on any specific cases where they are trying to get the right flexibility. we will do whatever we can to

support. >> i would be interested in hearing any suggestions you may have. i know we are on a short timeframe. to hear any suggestions you may have what you reference the distinct statutes that we have to work with. what can we do in a new congress , most likely what we are looking at another transportation bill to be able to use our resources in a responsible manner, but also to move projects quicker. if you have specific changes, i would really be interested in hearing some of those. >> i would welcome a chance to work with you on that. should i preview them now? we will get back to you on that. >> have another question for you while i have you here. within days of that 2019 major flooding event that hit nebraska and dot requested quick response emergency funding from fhwa, it took the agency over three years

to release the quick relief funds that were there. these funds that are to be used for priority emergency repair work on federal aid routes, why is it fh wa able to reimburse for emergency repairs in a more reasonable amount of time and, again, do you have any ideas on how to make the process go more quickly in the future? i would really like to see that happen. >> i am not familiar with what took place in 2019 before we arrived, but i will say that our goal in general our practice in recent disasters has been to turn around and quick release requests the same day. that does involve working closely with the department of transportation to identify those dollars that are really going to be needed right away they can be put to use for semi annual allocation. in both instances talking about a foreseeable long-term expenditure something where we

are talking about slow stabilization or rerouting traffic, something we need right away that funding is no barrier to those on the ground trying to get that problem solved. wanting to continue on any refinements to the program that would continue to help with that the in the process of a full overhaul and revision of the er manual that lays out a lot of those procedures. i am hopeful that that will bring additional clarity and refinement to the process that may have helped in the situation we are describing. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. senator. >> thank you, chair, thank you, vice chair. i want to thank all the appointed officials that have done an extraordinary job in helping us recover from the wildfires. i think everyone knows the story a very small discrete compact talent was 100% level and incinerated. in a matter of hours.

and more than 100 people died and we are dealing with consequences going forward. i want to deal in fact now because the media has moved on from the spectacular and terrifying suffering and, yet, people are still suffering. how many structures were destroyed in the fire? >> my team advised me there was about 4000 residential units that were destroyed. >> 4000 housing units. 90% of the impacted area, 2200 structures. how many people does that represent? >> probably two and a half times that number. >> one of the things you need to know about hawaii is you have a lot of multigenerational families so that her house,

number of people per household is way higher. you have about 12,000 people without a home. how many homes have been rebuilt >> we took a look at the maui county and it appears there is just one, sir. >> one home rebuilt? 116 permits issued. over the last 15 months, 16% of the survivors who are housed but not in their own home, sorry, not 16, 60% of the survivors have moved at least three times. 20% of the survivors have moved five times. the problem is housing.

the federal emergency management agency you did a good job with the army corps of clearing the debris and making it safe to walk around. the soil is safe, the infrastructure is coming back online. the problem is housing in the way to rebuild a community is this. i want to make two points about this. the first is the practical impact of a lack of an authorization. we are currently digging a trench for temporary infrastructure. with fema money in partnership with the county. it is expensive to do anywhere, i get it. it is really expensive to dig a trench on maui. it is our aid expensive and hawaii generally. we just pick the most difficult

most time-consuming difficult place to try to build a trench. they will have to dig it back up so, if anybody thinks a lack of an authorization for this program which we manually put money towards, it is not as if you're being a fiscal conservative by not authorizing this program. you are just ensuring it's done in the maximally stupid way. we have a bipartisan bill that could fix this pretty narrow problem. it would not cause a penny of additional resources to be spent it would just ensure that when the two secretaries get together and think about disaster response and disaster recovery, that they could do it together and act like smart public administrators who do not want to waste money. they are being forced to waste money because of the lack of an authorization. and, so, i am sorry, i was supposed ask more questions but

i got a little more wound up. secretary, i want you to just walk us through what the human impact will be, set the authorization aside. if we do not fund this form maui , what will happen to these maui families? >> i think that at some point, there will be a need to shut down some of the temporary housing arrangements that families have and notwithstanding, i am sure what will be great attempts by the governor and the maui county mayor and some of those people will leave maui. some of those folks if they do not find a home may be rendered homeless which of course is not something any of us want, but inevitably, not having those homes rebuilt needs maui will continue to have an acute housing crisis. which it had even prior to the wildfires. so i think that it will impact

not just the victims in the survivors, but everybody who lives on the island. >> thank you. we are about to, hopefully, spent tens of billions of dollars on disasters across the country. but as the senator said it senator fisher said, and i am trying to emphasize, we do not have to do it on intelligently. i know that we are appropriators and not all the risers, but we are all members of the united states senate to sit on authorizing committees. there is no reason we should spend this amount of money in a way that is so clunky that ba does not get to the people or that we spend more money than we ought to. thank you very much. >> thank you, senator bozeman. >> thank you. thank you all for being here. we do appreciate your hard work. secretary, we appreciate you very much.

i've enjoyed working with you the last several years. i know that you have been out and about as much as anybody. i think about you being in arkansas. one of our smaller communities and a person from many even smaller communities being there and talking about our water problems as a result of your leadership. everyone working together, i think that we were able to put together a project that was really the last biggest group of people that did not have water. i think it was 500 families now have water as a result of this. those are good things. i know you've worked really hard to do that. i am a little bit concerned about usaid and their response to what is going on right now. mentioning that agriculture is at the 20 year average. twenty year average does not mean anything right now. there is no person working in

america that wants to be at the 20 year average. boeing is striking, is struck all of these different areas, they are not asking for a 20 year average or whatever, there wanted 20, 30, 40% increases. so, i agree with the senator, it is really dire in farm country right now. the other thing that i think is unfair is, when you talk about agriculture in the 20 year average, if you are growing, if you are producing cattle, things like that, it is very, very good if you're growing something in right now, it is very , very bad. i have not been around here forever, but i've been around here for a while and i've never been inns a situation where the bankers areen coming in saying f you do not do something, we are not going to be able to because of our big examiners not being able to provide the credit that

our farmers need. that isio not the 20 year avera, it is not a rosy picture, it is a very dire picture g officer: w objection. so ordered. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar 285, s. 1153. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 285, s. 1153, a bill to require the secretary of commerce to establish the national manufacturing advisory council and so forth and for other purposes. mr. schumer: -- the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the committee-reported substitute amendment be withdrawn, the peters substitute amendment at the desk be considered and agreed to, the bill, as amended, be considered and read a third time. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i know of no further debate on the bill, as amended. the presiding officer: is there further debate? if not, all in favor say aye.

all opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the bill, as amended, is passed. mr. schumer: i ask that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 484, s. 3959. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 484, s. 3959, a bill to require the transportation security administration to streamline the enroll many processes and so forth and for other purposes. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection, the senate will proceed. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the committee-reported substitute amendment be considered and agreed to, the bill as amended be considered read a third time and passed, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous

consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of h.r. 7218 which was received from the house and is at the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: h.r. 7218, an act to amend title 3 of the public health service act, and so forth and for other purposes. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection, the senate will proceed. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the bill be considered read a third time. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i know of no further debate on the bill. the presiding officer: is there further debate? if not all in favor say aye. opposed say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the bill is passed. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed with the immediate consideration of h.r. 8932 which was received from the house. the presiding officer: the clerk will report.

the clerk: h.r. 8932 an act to establish earlier application processing cycle and so forth. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding? without objection, the senate will proceed. mr. schumer: i further ask the bill be considered read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: mr. president, madam president, i ask unanimous consent the commerce committee be discharged from further consideration of s. res. 894 and the resolution be referred to the committee on judiciary. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: madam president, i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the consideration of s. res. 902 which is at the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 902 relating to the addict of timothy peter johnson, former senator for the state of south dakota. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure?

without objection, the senate will proceed. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the en bloc consideration of the following senate resolutions, s. res. 903, 904, 905, 906, 907. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to measures en bloc? without objection. we will proceed en bloc. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the resolutions be agreed to, the preambles be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table en bloc. priep without objection. mr. schumer: i have eight requests forments to meet -- for committees to meet. the presiding officer: duly noted. mr. schumer: when the senate

completes business today it stands adjourned under the provisions ofs s. res. 902 until thursday, 10 a.m. that following the prayer and pledge, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour deemed expired, the time for leaders be reserved for use later in the de and morning business be closed. following the conclusion of morning business, the senate proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the wise nomination. further that at 11:00 a.m. the senate vote on the cloture motions with respect to the wise and whilheimer nominations. following the vote on the whilheimer nomination, the senate resume consideration of the desai nomination and vote at 1:45 p.m. if any nominations are confirmed during thursday's session, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the president be immediately notified of the senate's action. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. schumer: if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it stand adjourned under the previous

order. the presiding officer: under the previous order, and purr subt to s. res. -- pursuant to s. res. 902 the senate stands adjourned until thursday 10:00 and does so out of respect to the late tim

electoral breakdown and see what states each candidate carried. explore outcomes in senate, governor's races and monitor the final balance of power in congress, plus, watch acceptance and con decision speeches on demand any time, stay up to date with c-span, unfiltered view of politics at c-span.org/results. c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we are funded by these television companies and more including media com. >> nearly 30 years ago media com was founded on a powerful idea bringing cutting-edge broadband to underserved communities.