Senator Murray Discusses Work Ahead, Urgent Need for Bipartisan Full-Year Funding Bills and National Security Supplemental

***WATCH: Senator Murray’s Remarks***

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, delivered the following remarks at this afternoon’s Senate Democrats’ weekly press conference regarding the work that lies ahead to pass the national security supplemental and prevent a government shutdown come January.

Senator Murray’s remarks, as delivered, are below:

“Look, there is a lot we have to tackle in the coming weeks.

“The shutdown clock is ticking now.

“The war in Ukraine is raging now.

“The child care crisis is getting worse, WIC needs to be fully funded, and a lot more.

“So my message to Republicans: if this place is going to work, if we are going to get our jobs done, we have to stand by our word.

“That means we are standing by our word when it comes to all of our allies—not treating some like true allies, and others like political bargaining chips.

“It means, when we reach an agreement like the debt ceiling deal—we stick to it, in its entirety.

“Instead, House Republicans have been moving backwards to push for new dramatic cuts that will hurt families.

“Let’s be clear, the adjustments to topline spending in that agreement, adjustments like we make every year, were not some separate, less-important thing—those adjustments made the overall deal possible.

“There was no deal without them.

 

“You don’t get to negotiate how much of your word you’re going to keep. This is the very basics of lawmaking!

“So to avoid a shutdown come January 19^th, we need to push House Republicans to get serious about the deal they pushed for in the first place, so that we can finally start conferencing and passing bipartisan funding bills.

“Because the consequences for families back home are certainly serious.

“We are not going to have a lot of time when we get back to get our security package and full-year funding bills across the finish line. We’ve got to work together, in a bipartisan way, now if we want to get anything done.

“So we’ve got keep talking to one another and understand that we need to move quickly.”

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