Federal Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2023
Floor Speech
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Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, while he is on the floor, let me thank Senator Padilla for our partnership, these many months, and also to Senator Cassidy. And we Westerners have really strong views about this because the fires of the West today are not your grandfather's fires. They are bigger. They are hotter. They are more powerful. They are leaping over rivers. And the families that my colleague and I are talking about feel like they have been hit by a wrecking ball.
And after getting clobbered, they are saying to themselves, why can't I get a fair shake from the government? Why are they hitting me again, even though I don't have any income--as my colleague has said so well. These are people who have truly been visited by a disaster. Their homes and their businesses are burned. Their possessions and livelihood are gone.
And finally, the Federal Government is showing some common sense. That is what my friend from California has spelled out. Our effort is going to lift a big tax burden off these victims of wildfires and other natural disasters. We are getting rid of a totally unfair tax on legal fees associated with settlements after disasters. And by the way, we are fixing something that went haywire in the Republican's 2017 tax bill.
Now, we have been pushing our colleagues in a bipartisan way for months to do a bill that addresses this and other issues. I see in the Chair another very valuable member of the Finance Committee, our friend from New Hampshire Senator Hassan. And she and I and others had a bill that got 357 votes in the House of Representatives that included this important legislation that Senator Padilla and Senator Cassidy and I have worked on.
I told my colleague that we had our 1,100th townhall meeting where the victims came and said: Ron, will it ever get done?
And I said: You bet it is going to get done. It is going to get done in the lameduck session.
They said: Why hasn't it happened earlier?
And the reality is, it should have happened earlier because you don't get 357 votes very often over there in the House of Representatives. It doesn't happen by osmosis. It is because my colleagues here are working in a bipartisan way and wanted to get this done.
So, we wanted, frankly, to do more. We wanted to do it earlier. But I say to my colleagues that we are going to keep going on the things from that package that got 357 votes in the House, like research and development expensing, which our friend from New Hampshire has championed, and ending double taxation between the U.S. and Taiwan.
But tonight, is an evening when Senator Padilla and I have said, finally, after all this waiting, we are going to see relief for these people who have been clobbered by these huge infernos--because that is the only way to describe our fires, Senator Padilla. These are infernos. It gets hot and dry on the forest floor. Somebody drops a match, maybe there is a lightning strike. Kaboom--and those people are finally tonight, through the work that has been done by my friend from California, and our friend from Louisiana, and a lot of Senators-- Senator Schatz is another example--we are going to be able to tell folks in the West--it is only 5 o'clock or so in California and Oregon--who have been hit by these big fires, they are going to be able to go to bed tonight with a little relief that the Federal Government has finally come to its senses and made sure that they are not going to have this additional tax burden.
So, I want to thank my friend from California for his good work. He has been a terrific partner. I think it is very fitting that the Senator from New Hampshire is in the Chair because she, more than anybody than I know of on our committee, was really putting in the sweat equity for a bipartisan bill.
This is a good night for the people that we represent in the West. It is a good night for a lot of other people in this country. And I want to thank my colleague and the person who has led us on so many of these issues from New Hampshire, Senator Hassan, because we are finally getting justice and a fair shake for people who did nothing wrong who have been visited by these fires and these disasters.
And the Federal Government is showing some common sense, which most of them, I think, would agree should have been shown quite some time ago. I thank my friend.
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