Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act 2.0

Mr. President, well, we have arrived. We are here at last, another government shutdown averted. The government will remain open.

I am not sure if that is good news or bad news. People need to know, yes, the government will stay open, and it will not be chaotic. Congress can adjourn, which is probably a good thing when Congress adjourns.

But the thing about government staying open is we will pass something called a continued resolution. What does that mean? It means we are resolved to continue, continue as we have for, really, decades.

We will continue to spend money, regardless of whether we have it or not. We will continue to spend money at a pace such that we will accumulate about $2 trillion in debt each year; the deficit will be about $2 trillion.

Now, the spending is comprised of a lot of different areas. It is about $6.8 trillion in spending, and we bring in about $4.8 trillion in revenue.

So it is about a $2 trillion mismatch. A lot of the spending is entitlements, probably two-thirds of the spending is entitlements, but this body refuses to address entitlements, so as part of the continuing spending tonight, keeping government open, all of the entitlements will be taken off board, and there will be no reforms to entitlements, no reduction in spending in entitlements. They will continue growing; some will be about 5 and 6 percent per year.

Almost everybody on both sides of the aisle acknowledges that entitlements are the problem; entitlements are driving the debt. What we vote on, people call it a budget, or another word they call it is ``discretionary'' spending. It is about $1.7 trillion or so, about $2 trillion. Of that $2 trillion, about half is military, half is nonmilitary.

Well, the military has been taken off the table also, primarily by Republicans, but Democrats are complicit as well. No military spending will be addressed; no waste in the military will be addressed; and the Pentagon will not be audited.

They have said for decades the Pentagon needs to be audited, and the Pentagon says: We are too big to be audited. Leave us alone. We are too big.

Occasionally, we will find some things, $500 toilet seats or $800 hammers, things like that, but overall, we have no idea where the money is going and neither do they. They sometimes talk about hundreds of millions of dollars really literally missing that they have no idea.

But it is taken off the table because the powers that be say that military is sacrosanct, cannot be looked at, and must have increased spending. So all the entitlements are going up. That is two-thirds of $6.8 trillion. The remaining $2 trillion is half military. It is going up, and nobody is looking at it either.

So we have discretionary. Nonmilitary discretionary spending is part of the budget also. And we couldn't come to an agreement, other than we are going to be resolved to continue spending at about the pace we are. It will be short term, and that would be bad enough because the spending will accumulate and is accumulating about a $2 trillion deficit. But that is not enough.

This has been a horrendous week for fiscal conservatives because we are not going to just continue as we have been doing, continue loading on the debt, we are also adding to it in a dramatic fashion.

This week, there will be $330 billion added on to the spending; $200 billion of it will be for Social Security. You say: Well, we should want to help people. Why wouldn't we give people that are senior citizens more money? Well, if we give new people more money, we have to take it from somewhere. We are going to have to either borrow it or we are going to have to print it, but it has to come from somewhere. Money doesn't grow on trees.

So $200 billion increase in spending for Social Security. Where is the money going to come from?

Now, I will offer an amendment that would pay for it. My amendment would be to raise the age gradually of Social Security 3 months a year for about 12 years, and that would pay for the expansion of benefits.

I think that is the only responsible way to do this. You want more benefits for people? You can't just, you know, push the bankruptcy of Social Security and say: Well, yeah, it will go bankrupt in about 9 years, but maybe I won't be here, or maybe I won't be alive, and maybe it will still exist for people.

But shouldn't we care about what is going to happen to the future of Social Security? Shouldn't we care about how this is going to be paid for? But it will be interesting to see how the vote is. I suspect I won't win, but we are going to have a vote on gradually raising the age.

But here is the rub of how difficult it is and how far behind the eight ball we have become. I proposed this solution 12 years ago, 13 years ago. When I did, it fixed two-thirds of the shortfall. If you raise the age gradually from 67 to 70, about 2 or 3 months a year, it wiped out most of the shortfall and fixed the problem 13 years ago. If you do it now, it only gives us 1 more year of solvency before bankruptcy comes.

So we have taken a problem that was eminently fixable a decade ago, and at this point, if we were to do it and my amendment were to pass, it would pay for the expansion, but still the system is going bankrupt because we just keep adding stuff to it.

Most people don't realize this, but Social Security actually will give you money no matter what your income is if you have teenage children and one of the parents is over 65. Now, somebody thought up this program and said: Wow, this would be good. We should help out elderly parents that are taking care of teenagers.

You can be a billionaire and--I know people who are wealthy whose kids drive Porsches who are getting $1,500 a month for each of their kids because the dad is 65.

Why would we do a program that is not based on income at all? Why would we let anybody join in that? Is that why Social Security is going bankrupt? No. That is just an element, though, of where the money is going.

But everything that happens in this city is based on compassion. I feel for people, and I want to help people, but nobody does anything based on math. Nobody really looks at this and says: Well, shouldn't we do something to

make sure it is paid for? What about next decade? What is going to happen to Social Security? Not a care. They just expand it, and it is feel-good.

You know, the free lunch, the mantra of free lunch is good. Here is stuff. Here is manna. We are going to give you more money. Just be content. Take some soma. Just relax. Here is some more money.

But we are destroying the entitlement programs. Social Security is going bankrupt, and we sped up the bankruptcy this week by adding $200 billion. That is going to be concluded tonight.

That is $200 billion in brandnew spending to a system that was already $2 trillion short. Now, we also gave $30 billion to farmers. That is going to be in the package tonight, too.

Now, why do the farmers say they need money? Many farmers are actually pretty well-off and doing pretty well actually. But they say that the tariffs during the first Trump administration hurt them so badly that they are still having to reduce exports, and they need more money. So we are still paying them for the tariff wars that were begun 4 years ago, and still half the people in the country are jumping up and down and saying they want more tariffs.

What are we going to do, pay off everybody that doesn't benefit from the tariffs? Think about it. If you put tariffs on a steel mill and you say: Well, we are not going to let the Chinese sell any steel over here. You have this bright, shiny steel mill and all the thousand workers stand in front of it, and they love you because you are going to help them with their jobs, and they are going to be more secure.

But for every person making steel, there are 80 workers working somewhere buying steel. So what you do is you just ignore the other half of the equation. Why? Because it is easy to see the shiny steel factory. It is easy to see those workers.

The 80 workers that are working for other industries, car industry, building warehouses, anybody that uses steel, fences, all these people buying stuff are scattered through small industries, and you don't see them.

But their economic impact at least equals but probably exceeds the one you are trying to benefit. We do so many crazy things. So $200 billion to expand Social Security that won't be paid for and speeds up the bankruptcy and demise of Social Security; $30 billion for farmers, many of whom have other resources and really are not desperately in need of this.

What happens to the borrowing--$230 billion. Well, it is not over. We also are adding $100 billion for disaster. And you say to yourself: Well, you know, we have got to help people in need. They have had storms. They have had flooding. We have got to help them. Well, shouldn't we try to root out the waste and fraud in those systems, the people that are stealing money from these things? If you want to know how people are stealing things and how many people are stealing things, when we did all that COVID stuff, we stopped the economy and gave free money to everybody.

We actually had foreign scoundrels, foreign fraudsters come in and take tens of millions of dollars, but we also had U.S. citizens buying Lamborghinis and Bugattis and all kind of fancy cars on their government.

We had people signing up for the program. One of them used an ID that had a picture of Barbie on it and got money. Many of them said: I have 500 workers, and they didn't have any workers. They didn't have a business.

So just fraud was rampant throughout it. This happens also in the disaster relief programs as well. People claim things they lost in disasters that didn't exist. But let's put that aside, the waste and fraud in the program, and say: We have to help people. We have to do something about disasters.

Well, maybe there ought to be a decision-making process where we say: What is more important? Ukraine or Asheville, NC?

Do we have enough money to do both? Well, we do if we borrow it. But when we borrow it, we add to the debt. The Fed buys the debt, and you create inflation.

It is no mystery why your goods cost more. During the last 4 years, groceries, meat, poultry, gasoline, rent, everything has gone up on average at least 20 percent. Now did it become more precious? Did we all of a sudden lose a supply of things? No. The dollar became weaker; the dollar became diluted because we had to buy all of this debt.

So it is a bait-and-switch. What we do is we expand, you know, this week 200 billion for Social Security, hundred billion for disasters-- that is 300 billion--30 billion for farm subsidies. That is $330 billion unpaid for. But the people here are gathered. The vast majority of them who will vote for this will go home, pat themselves on the back, and say: I brought you stuff. Isn't that what you want me to do? Bring you free stuff?

Well, it is not free. It has ramifications. They are destroying the dollar. They are destroying the country, and yet it goes on because it seems to be easy just to promise people something for nothing.

So I have a couple different solutions. To pay for the Social Security, let's gradually raise the age 3 months each year. And what it does is it actually pays entirely for this $200 billion expansion and then some. It has to be done. It will be done at some point. I offered it 13 years ago. And every year we have waited, we have gotten further behind the eight ball. And every year we have waited, we have gotten to the point where it is much more difficult to dig out of this hole.

As far as the shutdowns, I will admit that it is chaotic to go through this every 3 months, every 6 months, every year. There could be a way that we could actually say, when there is an impasse and both parties don't agree, we agree to continue spending but not at the same level.

See, the vote today on at least some of the budget, the part that is not going up like this, on a small portion, we will continue at the same level. But realize three-fourths of it is going up. We are not keeping it steady.

So if we vote to keep it steady, does that really fix the problem? No. If you keep it steady and even if you didn't increase spending, the budget never balances. Why? Because you are only keeping a very small portion of the budget steady. It is really about 16 percent. Two- thirds, 66 percent, entitlements; the remaining third: half military, half nonmilitary. Military is going up at 3 percent.

Oh, that is right. I forgot. Republicans have a great plan. Come spring, the Republicans are, by simple majority, going to bust through the military caps.

The military caps are put in place like all other caps to try to restrain spending, and they are ignored. But in the spring, the first reconciliation package the Republicans will pass with a simple majority is to bust through the military caps.

Military doesn't have enough money. We spend more on our military than the next eight countries combined, and yet it is never enough.

People say: We are going to find waste and fraud. I am all for it. I am a big supporter of looking for waste and fraud. I am a big supporter of getting rid of it.

Guess what. If you don't look at the entitlements, you are not a serious person. If you don't look at the military, you are not a serious person. The trouble will go on.

In the first Trump administration, $8 trillion were borrowed. I am a fan of Donald Trump. I supported him. I voted for him. But we borrowed $8 trillion. During the Biden administration, coincidentally, we borrowed another $8 trillion. They were equally fiscally irresponsible.

Now, at least during the Trump administration, you could argue there was COVID and the pandemic and all of that. But the reaction was too much, and the lockdowns were not necessary. They didn't save any lives through the lockdowns, and we spent a ton of money that we passed out for people not to work.

But the bottom line is, when you look at all of this, we have this enormous problem. I am all for eliminating the waste and fraud. It is not enough. You have to look at the entitlements. You have to look at the military.

Currently, we look at only about 16 percent of the budget. If you eliminated all of that--it is called nonmilitary discretionary; it is part of the budget. You eliminate all of it--which isn't going to happen--the budget still

never balances. You have to look at all the spending. We are not looking at any of the entitlement spending.

In fact, it is worse. Entitlements are driving the debt. Almost everybody agrees with it, and we are expanding the entitlements.

Social Security--beginning in 2021, Social Security, for the first time, pays out more than it brings in in taxes. It was the opposite for many years; Social Security brought in more than they spent, and they actually developed and had a reserve. For the last 3 years, Social Security has been paying out more than comes in. In 2021, they paid out 50 billion more than came in. In 2022, they paid out 22 billion more than came in. Last year, we paid out 40 billion more than came in.

If you had a business or even if you had a social program and you were paying out more than you brought in, wouldn't you try to reverse that trend? No. What we did this week is expand Social Security by $200 billion over 10 years. It is 20 billion a year. So if the debt next year for Social Security is going to be about the same as this year, it would be $40 billion. We added 20 billion to that. What is the math? A 50-percent increase in our debt.

So for someone who is fiscally conservative, this isn't a very good Christmas. This is a Christmas of just doing the same old thing.

So when you hear ``CR,'' continuing resolution, realize your government is resolved just to continue doing the same thing. They are kicking the can down the road. The debt is going to continue to accumulate, and they are not doing anything to fix it. So don't be pleased with your people. Look closely. Who are my representatives, and are they doing the right thing?

So we are going to offer a pay-for for Social Security. That will be one of my amendments tonight. We are also going to offer something called the Government Shutdown Protection Act. And what it will do is it says: When there is an impasse, when Republicans and Democrats don't agree, that the spending would continue at a reduced level. The level we chose was enough to try to bring both sides together to actually form an agreement; but also, we chose a number that would be enough of a cut to actually put us on a path to balance.

So if my amendment were to pass, government wouldn't shut down from here on out. But the spending would be at a 6-percent reduced level. This actually balances the budget, and it is a pretty significant cut. Most of them will say, Oh, it is too much. We can't vote for it.

But the thing is, is: Even if my cuts were to go into place, even if my amendment were to pass, a 6-percent cut would take 5 years to get to balance in 1 year. Not to get rid of any debt that we have accumulated, but just to get to an annual balance.

And they are like, Oh, woe is me. We can never do it. We can't cut people. People deserve money. People deserve stuff. We have to give them more stuff.

Do you know that in the European Union, 16 out of 28 countries in the European Union, who many are considered to be socialist, actually balance their budget? I met with a socialist from Sweden. He was more conservative than everybody across the aisle. He was more conservative than half the Republicans up here, because they thought that actual entitlements should be based on the economy. Their entitlements actually go down when the economy goes down. If the economy shrinks, their entitlements shrink. Everyone knows it is going to happen. If it is a bad year, we get a little less.

People would go nuts here. We do the opposite. During the last 4 years, they created so much inflation that people's costs went up 20 percent. What do we do? We have to give cost-of-living adjustments to those on Social Security, and we did; but we were short even more money. And it made the problem even worse and sped up the bankruptcy of Social Security.

So my amendment would say: We actually have to reduce spending. Now some people say to conservatives--both in my party and the others--they say, Oh, you people are unrealistic. You will never vote to raise the debt ceiling. But even if I had my way and we got cuts significant enough that I think the American people would accept, but most of this body wouldn't, and we balance the budget in 5 years, we would still accumulate debt over those 5 years. And I would vote to raise the debt ceiling during that brief period of time as we were on the way toward balancing our budget. But none of that is going to happen.

What we are doing this week and what both parties will be complicit in--and I mean both parties. Every Democrat here will vote for this bill, I assume. Every Democrat will vote to continue to be resolved to spend money at a rate that is $2 trillion more than comes in. And half the Republicans will join them.

There will be a minority of Republicans who will say: We are conservative, and we shouldn't spend this much money.

But we will offer amendments tonight, and people will get to decide where they are. And people at home will have to decide: Are we going to live this way? How long can we live this way? What causes inflation? Can we not have representatives who believe that balancing our budget is the appropriate thing to do?

So the amendments I offer today are such that I think they are necessary. I think they will help us to save Social Security from bankruptcy, but they won't be very popular here. But I offer them in hopes that people will see them across America and say: At least somebody cares about the solvency of Social Security. At least somebody has the guts to say, This is what we would do to try to save and preserve Social Security, rather than just giving free stuff to everybody and saying, No big deal. You can have more. You want more? Here is more.

Somebody's got to ask: How are we going to pay for this? Someone has to be responsible up here. And if you watch closely who votes on this amendment, you will see who are the truly fiscally responsible people in the Senate.

I yield the floor.

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

Kevin F. McCumber, Clerk of the House, reported and found truly enrolled bills of the House of the following titles, which were thereupon signed by the Speaker pro tempore, Mr. McHenry, on Friday, December 20, 2024:

H.R. 663. An act to amend the Indian Child Protection and

Family Violence Prevention Act.

H.R. 1607. An act to clarify jurisdiction with respect to

certain Bureau of Reclamation pumped storage development, and

for other purposes.

H.R. 1727. An act to amend the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal

Development Act to extend the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal

National Historical Park Commission.

H.R. 2468. An act to require the Secretary of the Interior

to convey to the State of Utah certain Federal land under the

administrative jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management

within the boundaries of Camp Williams, Utah, and for other

purposes.

H.R. 3324. An act to extend the authority to collect

Shasta-Trinity Marina fees through fiscal year 2029.

H.R. 4094. An act to amend the Central Utah Project

Completion Act to authorize expenditures for the conduct of

certain water conservation measures in the Great Salt Lake

basin, and for other purposes.

H.R. 4385. An act to extend authorization of the

Reclamation States Emergency Drought Relief Act of 1991.

H.R. 4467. An act to direct the Under Secretary for

Management of the Department of Homeland Security to assess

contracts for covered services performed by contractor

personnel along the United States land border with Mexico,

and for other purposes.

H.R. 5646. An act to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965

to require institutions of higher education to disclose

hazing incidents, and for other purposes.

H.R. 5770. An act to reauthorize certain United States

Geological Survey water data enhancement programs.

H.R. 6826. An act to designate the visitor and education

center at Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine

as the Paul S. Sarbanes Visitor and Education Center.

H.R. 6843. An act to expand the boundaries of the

Atchafalaya National Heritage Area to include Lafourche

Parish, Louisiana.

H.R. 7177. An act to amend title 28, United States Code, to

consolidate certain divisions in the Northern District of

Alabama.

H.R. 7213. An act to amend the Public Health Service Act to

enhance and reauthorize activities and programs relating to

autism spectrum disorder, and for other purposes.

H.R. 7332. An Act to require the Secretary of the Interior

and the Secretary of Agriculture to convey certain Federal

land to the State of Utah for inclusion in certain State

parks, and for other purposes.

H.R. 7524. An act to amend title 40, United States Code, to

require the submission of reports on certain information

technology services funds to Congress before expenditures may

be made, and for other purposes.

H.R. 8219. An act to require the Secretary of the Interior

to conduct a study to assess the suitability and feasibility

of designating certain land as the Lahaina National Heritage

Area, and for other purposes.

H.R. 8413. An act to provide for the conveyance of certain

Federal land at Swanson Reservoir and Hugh Butler Reservoir

in the State of Nebraska, and for other purposes.

H.R. 8663. An act to require the Science and Technology

Directorate in the Department of Homeland Security to develop

greater capacity to detect and identify illicit substances in

very low concentrations.

H.R. 9566. An act to require governmentwide source code

sharing, and for other purposes.

Kevin F. McCumber, Clerk of the House, further reported and found truly an enrolled bill of the House of the following title, which was thereupon signed by the Speaker on Saturday, December 21, 2024:

H.R. 10545. An act making further continuing appropriations

for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2025, and for other

purposes.

Kevin F. McCumber, Clerk of the House, further reported and found truly enrolled bills of the House of the following titles, which were thereupon signed by the Speaker pro tempore, Mr. McHENRY:

H.R. 82. An act to amend title II of the Social Security

Act to repeal the Government pension offset and windfall

elimination provisions.

H.R. 670. An act to direct the Secretary of Health and

Human Services to establish a website to promote awareness of

available resources for individuals with disabilities, and

for other purposes.

H.R. 1318. An act to authorize the location of a monument

on the National Mall to commemorate and honor the women's

suffrage movement and the passage of the 19th Amendment to

the Constitution, and for other purposes.

H.R. 1555. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 2300 Sylvan Avenue in

Modesto, California, as the ``Corporal Michael D. Anderson

Jr. Post Office Building''.

H.R. 1823. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 207 East Fort Dade Avenue in

Brooksville, Florida, as the ``Specialist Justin Dean Coleman

Memorial Post Office Building''.

H.R. 2997. An act to direct the Secretary of the Interior

to convey to Mesa County, Colorado, certain Federal land in

Colorado, and for other purposes.

H.R. 3354. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 220 North Hatcher Avenue in

Purcellville, Virginia, as the ``Secretary of State Madeleine

Albright Post Office Building''.

H.R. 3391. An act to extend the Gabriella Miller Kids First

Pediatric Research Program at the National Institutes of

Health, and for other purposes.

H.R. 4136. An act to name the Department of Veterans

Affairs community-based outpatient clinic in Plano, Texas, as

the ``U.S. Congressman Sam Johnson Memorial VA Clinic''.

H.R. 4955. An act to name the community-based outpatient

clinic of the Department of Veterans Affairs in Monroeville,

Pennsylvania, as the ``Henry Parham VA Clinic''.

H.R. 4984. An act to direct the Secretary of the Interior

to transfer administrative jurisdiction over the Robert F.

Kennedy Memorial Stadium Campus to the District of Columbia

so that the District may use the Campus for purposes

including residential and commercial development, and for

other purposes.

H.R. 5103. An act to require the Director of the Office of

Management and Budget to approve or deny spend plans within a

certain amount of time, and for other purposes.

H.R. 5443. An act to establish a policy regarding appraisal

and valuation services for real property for a transaction

over which the Secretary of the Interior has jurisdiction,

and for other purposes.

H.R. 5867. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 109 Live Oaks Boulevard in

Casselberry, Florida, as the ``Colonel Joseph William

Kittinger II Post Office Building''.

H.R. 5887. An act to amend chapter 3 of title 5, United

States Code, to improve Government service delivery, and

build related capacity for the Federal Government, and for

other purposes.

H.R. 6062. An act to restore the ability of the people of

American Samoa to approve amendments to the territorial

constitution based on majority rule in a democratic act of

self-determination, as authorized pursuant to an Act of

Congress delegating administration of Federal territorial law

in the territory to the President, and to the Secretary of

the Interior under Executive Order 10264, dated June 29,

1951, under which the Constitution of American Samoa was

approved and may be amended without requirement for further

congressional action, subject to the authority of Congress

under the Territorial Clause in article IV, section 3, clause

2 of the United States Constitution.

H.R. 6116. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 14280 South Military Trail

in Delray Beach, Florida, as the ``Benjamin Berell Ferencz

Post Office Building''.

H.R. 6162. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 379 North Oates Street in

Dothan, Alabama, as the ``LaBruce `Bruce' Tidwell Post Office

Building''.

H.R. 6188. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 420 Highway 17 North in

Surfside Beach, South Carolina, as the ``Nancy Yount Childs

Post Office Building''.

H.R. 6244. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 1535 East Los Ebanos

Boulevard in Brownsville, Texas, as the ``1st Lieutenant

Andres Zermeno Post Office Building''.

H.R. 6395. An act to amend the Energy Act of 2020 to

require the Secretary of the Interior to include the

Secretary of Health and Human Services in consultations

regarding designations of critical minerals, elements,

substances, and materials.

H.R. 6492. An act to improve recreation opportunities on,

and facilitate greater access to, Federal public land, and

for other purposes.

H.R. 6633. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 9355 113th Street in

Seminole, Florida, as the ``Army SSG Ryan Christian Knauss

Memorial Post Office Building''.

H.R. 6750. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 501 Mercer Street Southwest

in Wilson, North Carolina, as the ``Milton F. Fitch, Sr. Post

Office Building''.

H.R. 6810. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 518 North Ridgewood Drive in

Sebring, Florida, as the ``U.S. Army Air Corps Major Thomas

B. McGuire Post Office Building''.

H.R. 6852. An act to designate Holcombe Rucker Park, in

Harlem, New York, as a National Commemorative Site, and for

other purposes.

H.R. 6983. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 15 South Valdosta Road in

Lakeland, Georgia, as the ``Nell Patten Roquemore Post

Office''.

H.R. 7158. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 201 East Battles Road in

Santa Maria, California, as the ``Larry Lavagnino Post Office

Building''.

H.R. 7180. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 80 1st Street in Kingsland,

Arkansas, as the Kingsland `Johnny Cash' Post Office''.

H.R. 7365. To provide PreCheck to certain severely injured

or disabled veterans, and for other purposes.

H.R. 7385. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 29 Franklin Street in

Petersburg, Virginia, as the ``John Mercer Langston Post

Office Building''.

H.R. 74l7. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 135 West Spring Street in

Titusville, Pennsylvania, as the ``Edwin L. Drake Post Office

Building''.

H.R. 7507. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 203 East 6th Street in

Lexington, Nebraska, as the ``William E. and Elsie L. Barrett

Post Office Building''.

H.R. 7508. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 1285 Emancipation Highway in

Fredericksburg, Virginia, as the ``Gladys P. Todd Post

Office''.

H.R. 7606. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 1087 Route 47 South in Rio

Grande, New Jersey, as the ``Carlton H. Hand Post Office

Building''.

H.R. 7607. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at Block 1025, Lots 18 & 19,

Northeast Corner of US Route 9 South and Main Street in the

Township of Middle County of Cape May, New Jersey, as the

``George Henry White Post Office Building''.

H.R. 7893. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 306 Pickens Street in

Marion, Alabama, as the ``Albert Turner, Sr. Post Office

Building''.

H.R. 7938. An act to amend the Klamath Basin Water Supply

Enhancement Act of 2000 to provide the Secretary of the

Interior with certain authorities with respect to projects

affecting the Klamath Basin watershed, and for other

purposes.

H.R. 8012. An act to establish the Jackie Robinson Ballpark

National Commemorative Site in the State of Florida, and for

other purposes.

H.R. 8057. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 9317 Bolsa Avenue in

Westminster, California, as the ``Little Saigon Vietnam War

Veterans Memorial Post Office''.

H.R. 8641. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 401 Main Street in Brawley,

California, as the ``Walter Francis Ulloa Memorial Post

Office Building''.

H.R. 8666. An act to amend title 28, United States Code, to

authorize holding court for the Central Division of Utah in

Moab and Monticello.

H.R. 8667. An act to rename the community-based outpatient

clinic of the Department of Veterans Affairs in Cadillac,

Michigan, as the ``Duane E. Dewey VA Clinic''.

H.R. 8717. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 20 West Main Street in

SantaQuin, Utah, as the ``SGT Bill Hooser Post Office

Building''.

H.R. 8841. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 114 Center Street East in

Roseau, Minnesota, as the ``Floyd B. Olson Post Office''.

H.R. 8868. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located 609 Portsmouth Avenue in

Greenland, New Hampshire, as the ``Chief Michael Maloney Post

Office Building''.

H.R. 8909. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 82-6110 Mamalahoa Highway in

Captain Cook, Hawaii, as the ``Army 1st Lt. John Kuulei

Kauhaihao Post Office Building''.

H.R. 8919. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 151 Highway 74 South in

Peachtree City, Georgia, as the ``SFC Shawn McCloskey Post

Office''.

H.R. 8976. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 20 West White Street in

Millstadt, Illinois, as the ``Corporal Matthew A. Wyatt Post

Office''.

H.R. 9076. An act to reauthorize child welfare programs

under part B of title IV of the Social Security Act and

strengthen the State and tribal child support enforcement

program under part D of such title, and for other purposes.

H.R. 9124. An act to name the Department of Veterans

Affairs community-based outpatient clinic in Auburn,

California, as the ``Louis A. Conter VA Clinic''.

H.R. 9285. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 39l3 Leland Avenue Northwest

in Comstock Park, Michigan, as the ``Captain Miguel Justin

Nava Post Office''.

H.R. 9322. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 675 Wolf Ledges Parkway in

Akron, Ohio, as the ``Judge James R. Williams Post Office

Building''.

H.R. 9421. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 108 North Main Street in

Bucoda, Washington, as the ``Mayor Rob Gordon Post Office''.

H.R. 9487. An act to amend the Legislative Reorganization

Act of 1970 to authorize the Legislative Counsel of the House

of Representatives to designate more than one of the

attorneys of the Office of the Legislative Counsel as a

Deputy Legislative Counsel, and for other purposes.

H.R. 9544. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 340 South Loudon Avenue in

Baltimore, Maryland, as the ``United States Representative

Elijah E. Cummings Post Office Building''.

H.R. 9549. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 125 South 1st Avenue in

Hillsboro, Oregon, as the ``Elizabeth Furse Post Office

Building''.

H.R. 9580. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 2777 Brentwood Road in

Raleigh, North Carolina, as the ``Millie Dunn Veasey Post

Office''.

H.R. 9592. An act to amend title 44, United States Code, to

modernize the Federal Register, and for other purposes.

H.R. 9600. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 119 Main Street in Plains,

Georgia, as the ``Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Post Office''.

H.R. 9775. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 119 North Anderson Street in

Elwood, Indiana, as the ``Officer Noah Jacob Shahnavaz Post

Office Building''.

H.R. 10065. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 802 North Tancahua Street in

Corpus Christi, Texas, as the ``Captain Robert E. `Bob'

Batterson Post Office''.

Mr. President, in 2013, in my first year in the Senate, a 10-year-old child in Virginia, Loudoun County, named Gabriella Miller passed away from an inoperable brain tumor.

Nothing could be worse for a family. Her parents, Ellyn and Mark, and her brother suffered greatly in this. But as many do, in an amazing way, in a mysterious way, in a time of suffering, they turned their tragedy into a cause.

Shortly after I came to the Senate, Mark and Ellyn Miller came to see me and talk to me about their daughter Gabriella.

They asked me a question: Senator, what percentage of medical research in this country is devoted to pediatric conditions?

I thought, well, you know, pediatric--under age 18. Maybe it is 12 percent of the population. So I guessed 12 percent.

They said: Less than 1 percent.

Less than 1 percent of medical research funding in the NIH and other Agencies was devoted to pediatric conditions. There was kind of a--I don't know--it was a conventional wisdom of: No, we don't put research into that, but if we can research adult conditions, we can kind of apply it to pediatric conditions--which everyone here knows that is not the case. Many pediatric conditions are very different than adult conditions.

So I began to work with the Miller family on a bill to increase research at the NIH and other Federal Agencies for pediatric conditions, especially pediatric conditions of the kind that killed Gabriella Miller.

The following year, in 2014, I partnered with Virginia Congressman-- and then a Republican leader in the Senate--Eric Cantor and others to pass the Gabriella Miller Kids First Pediatric Research Program to fund NIH research on pediatric cancer, and the 10-year bill that we passed is up for reauthorization.

I partnered with Senator Jay Moran, my colleague from Kansas, to reauthorize it with the support of colleagues on both sides--numerous, numerous colleagues.

The Republican House has passed a version of this bill. The lead sponsor on the House side is Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton, who is retiring because she has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of supranuclear palsy, which is an advanced form of Parkinson's disease. My colleague Jennifer Wexton is no longer able to speak without an AI- assisted device, but in these last few days of her time in the House, she has made the passing of the reauthorization of the Gabriella Miller Act her chief priority.

The reauthorization was included in the health package in the bipartisan version of the CR bill that we negotiated with the House, but that package was left on the cutting room floor of the CR that was just passed in the House. Advocates of the bill, including Ellyn and Mark Miller and others who care about pediatric research, were bitterly disappointed.

I am going to vote for the CR when it comes over from the House, but if I am going to have to explain to advocates that I share their disappointment in the fact that this 10-year program, which has now produced more than $125 million in research into pediatric cancer, is going to be left on the floor, I have to at least make an effort here on the floor to authorize this program going forward.

The good news is, the bill that Representative Wexton has put in the House was authorized flat funding for another 5 years. I give credit to my colleagues on the Senate HELP Committee because the Gabriella Miller Act was reauthorized in the Senate for 10 years at an increasing level of funding, beginning at the current funding level of $12.5 million a year and escalating to $25 million over the course of 10 years.

But the time is late--no time to fool around. The bill that has passed not only in committee but was passed in the House of Representatives--5-year funding at its current level, $12.5 million a year, to continue to invest in research into children's cancer and pediatric conditions.

I respect my colleague's sincere commitment to responsible Federal budgeting. One of my colleagues, Senator Paul--I have worked with him to hopefully lift an objection that he had to this bill by agreeing to work with him to make sure that there are not other overlapping programs where we are spending money to do the same thing.

We have recently talked about other legislative initiatives that we will work on together, but my understanding as I stand here today is, with this commitment I have made to Senator Paul, he is dropping any objection to including this by unanimous consent.

I think, while it is not everything I hoped and it is not everything the Senate HELP Committee did in a bipartisan way, it would continue this important program.

Gabriella Miller, when she was diagnosed with brain cancer at age 10, didn't go quietly into the good night. I think that is a Dylan Thomas line. She instead said: I am going to raise every bit of money I can for cancer research.

In the last year of her life, she raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for cancer research on her own with little bake sales and fundraisers. The brain tumor that was in her brain was the size of a walnut, and she created a nonprofit foundation called the Smashing Walnuts Foundation.

The comments I make tonight and the effort I undertake with Representative Wexton truly are to honor her and to thank her parents for their advocacy. In particular, I want to thank her mother Ellyn Miller, who has been a force of nature in creating this program and keeping it going.

We need to keep it going. It is bipartisan, it is bicameral, and it is making groundbreaking research possible. I ask my colleagues to let it pass into law.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that as if in legislative session, the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 3391 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time.

I know of no further debate on the bill.

I ask unanimous consent that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I rise tonight to make a simple but important point on behalf of the brave, freedom-loving citizens of the Republic of Georgia. It is time for the United States to stand alongside the brave nation of Georgia, the citizens of which went to the polls recently and voted to elect their own leadership.

It is time to impose heavy sanctions on the individuals and institutions now trying to thwart the democratic will of the people of the Republic of Georgia.

Now is the time to act. This is the 20th of December 2024. We don't need to act in mid-January. We need to act now while the people of Georgia are taking to the freezing streets in towns like Tbilisi and elsewhere to exercise their right to protest.

Now, here is what has happened--and it is such a familiar story, Mr. President. The Georgian people recently went to the polls, as really is the right of all mankind according to our Declaration of Independence. And the Georgian people rejected the Georgian Dream Party, which is really more and more becoming an arm of Vladimir Putin's Russian dictatorship.

The Georgian people, when they voted, rejected Bidzina Ivanishvili, the pro-Russian oligarch behind the party. This is similar to what other free voters have done in other countries around in that area--a decade or so ago in the Republic of Ukraine, in the recent Romanian elections.

It is happening also in Moldova. The people there do not wish to be under the thumb of a reincarnation of the Soviet Union under Vladimir Putin's dictatorship. And so they voted against the Georgian Dream Party, but the Georgian Dream Party in charge of the election machinery has tried to rig the election. And so the people of Georgia have risen up in response. And the Georgian Dream government, an arm of the Putin Russian Government, has responded in tyrannical fashion. The Georgian Dream Party has worked to overthrow the will of the voters and has marshalled the power of the police to crack down violently on peaceful protest.

In a number of days, Mr. President, the Georgian Dream Party could actually forcibly remove the democratically elected President of Georgia from power.

Now, the Biden administration has taken baby steps, long overdue, and I wish they would be more forceful. Our American administration has now publicly sanctioned two individuals. The State and Treasury Departments have sanctioned a senior ministry official and the Georgia Minister of Internal Affairs.

Now, what do the sanctions involve? They involve blocking the offending officials of the Georgian Dream Party from transactions in American banks. We can do that. They have frozen any assets these Russian puppets have owned in the United States and revoked any visas they have for our country. And I applaud the administration for these steps, but they could do so much more.

Of course, in response, the Georgian Dream Prime Minister Kobakhidze announced that he would decorate these two sanctioned Russian puppets and give them state honors in their roles for quashing the protests.

This is what is going on around the world. This is how tyrants act. Georgian Dream has thumbed its nose, of course, at our somewhat half- hearted measures. And so it is time, I would say, for the United States to demonstrate more decisive and timely resolve. Half measures are the wrong message at this point. So I call on the Biden administration to sanction the leaders of Georgian Dream, including Bidzina Ivanishvili, Kakha Kaladze, and Prime Minister Kobakhidze.

The Republic of Georgia is the home of freedom-loving people. They were once under the thumb of Moscow, and they do not wish to go back. Vladimir Putin would like to have Georgia back in its orbit, just like they would like to have Moldova back in their orbit, just like they even wish to have Romania and certainly Ukraine. And Vladimir Putin is willing to rig elections to have his agents brutally repress the peaceful protests that are going on.

Now, I admire these Georgian freedom fighters. They strongly oppose Putin's interference; and we ought to stand with them. I call on the State Department and the Biden administration in the last month of office to stand tall with the freedom-loving Georgian people. We must continue our legacy of cooperation and shared democratic values with the Republic of Georgia.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, I want to spend a minute saying a special commendation to Senators Brown and Casey, two exceptionally valuable members of the Senate Finance Committee who are going to be departing the Senate at the end of the year.

Nobody in the Senate understands the importance of Social Security for seniors and Americans with disabilities better than Senators Brown and Casey. They have been leading the fight for years to protect and strengthen Social Security for current and future generations of Americans, and they have done it for their entire careers. That includes battling those who would want to privatize the system, those who would raise the retirement age or advance schemes that would otherwise cut benefits.

It strikes me as particularly fitting that one of the final votes this body takes--and the first time the Senate votes to increase benefits in decades--will be a vote to ensure everyday Americans receive their earned benefits.

I was director of the Oregon Gray Panthers for almost 7 years before coming into public life, and I long ago decided that protecting Americans' earned benefits has been a lodestar, and Senators Casey and Brown have followed that through their public service.

This vote is also a chance for the American people to see clearly who is fighting for middle-class families, because what the Senate is doing is preventing across-the-board cuts to Social Security benefits for public servants like firefighters and nurses and busdrivers and police officers and teachers. These are all individuals who work in crucial professions, paying into Social Security out of every paycheck. They went into their line of work not to strike it rich but to answer the call to serve their communities.

As chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, I would urge all Members of the Senate, Republicans and Democrats, to stand with Senators Brown and Casey and all our colleagues who have been working to pass this legislation. It is long overdue.

I yield the floor.