  The observation of the standard model (SM) Higgs boson decay to a pair of
bottom quarks is presented. The main contribution to this result is from
processes in which Higgs bosons are produced in association with a W or Z boson
(VH), and are searched for in final states including 0, 1, or 2 charged leptons
and two identified bottom quark jets. The results from the measurement of these
processes in a data sample recorded by the CMS experiment in 2017, comprising
41.3 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV, are
described. When combined with previous VH measurements using data collected at
$\sqrt{s}=$ 7, 8, and 13 TeV, an excess of events is observed at $m_\mathrm{H}
=$ 125.09 GeV with a significance of 4.8 standard deviations, where the
expectation for the SM Higgs boson is 4.9. The corresponding measured signal
strength is 1.01 $\pm$ 0.22. The combination of this result with searches by
the CMS experiment for H $\to\mathrm{b\overline{b}}$ in other production
processes yields an observed (expected) significance of 5.6 (5.5) standard
deviations and a signal strength of 1.04 $\pm$ 0.20.
