Washington, D.C.—Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) released the following statement on the bipartisan agreement on the fiscal year 2017 spending bill.
“Although this wasn’t the bill I would have written on my own, we showed that when Democrats and Republicans work together and reject President Trump’s demands, we can make progress and get things done for the workers, women, and middle class families we represent. I am especially glad that this bill continues to fund health care for women and families and that we protected and expanded our investments in college affordability by making Pell Grants available year-round.
“President Trump sent a proposal to Congress to cut this bill’s domestic investments by $18 billion, but I am very glad that this request was ignored and we were able to work together to make important investments in education, health care, innovative medical research, transportation, and jobs at the levels we agreed upon when President Obama was in office.
“I am also very glad that despite President Trump’s demand to use this bill to fund his ill-conceived and expensive border wall, Democrats made it clear that this was a non-starter, and we successfully fought it off. President Trump said that Mexico will be paying for this terrible idea, so I am looking forward to hearing him push for it to be included in Mexico’s next budget and am hoping that he doesn’t come back again to ask American taxpayers to foot the bill.
“With this bill, we once again made it clear that Democrats will not allow women’s health to be attacked—not now, not ever. This bill funds the Affordable Care Act, continues investments in Planned Parenthood, and protects women’s health care across the board. Republicans should finally realize that if they want Democrats to work with them, they are going to have to write bills that don’t attack the health care and rights of more than half of our country’s population. I believe that economic stability for women and families in this country is contingent on access to health care and on women getting the services they need when they need them—and I made it clear that I wasn’t going to allow this bill to erode that.
“Now that we have made it clear that Democrats and Republicans can work together on a responsible budget when President Trump’s extreme and damaging proposals and cuts are rejected, I am hoping that Republicans choose to continue with this bipartisan approach as we quickly head toward negotiations on next year’s budget.”
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