Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, issued the following statement on final passage of the disaster relief package and CR that cleared the Senate in an 85-11 vote.
“Tonight, we prevented a needless shutdown before the holidays and finally delivered much-needed relief to help communities that have been struck by disasters all across the country. I worked hard to get these resources across the finish line—and to ensure that we meet the wide range of urgent needs across the country—because there are so many people still reeling from hurricanes, wildfires, tornadoes, flooding, and more that are counting on us to act. This relief will make such a critical difference for folks who have lost it all and are simply working to get their feet back underneath them.
“But let’s be very clear: it should never have taken this long or required this much chaos to get this done, and the only reason it did is because House Republicans chose chaos and chose to be dragged around by the richest man in the world.
“Bottom line: our government should not hang on the whims of an unelected billionaire and our policy should not be dictated by someone who has shown an incredible indifference over the last few days about working families’ lives. Whether or not we lurch toward a devastating shutdown that costs us money, hurts families, and sets back our economy should not depend on whether Elon Musk has the self-control to think for two seconds and do basic fact-checking before mistaking the most obvious Twitter trolls for policy experts. The American people want—and deserve—better than the chaos we got this week thanks to Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and House Republicans.”
Senator Murray has been pushing to approve additional disaster relief funding for well over a year—and negotiated the bipartisan disaster relief package passed today. In November, she chaired a full committee hearing on the president’s updated disaster relief request, at which she again underscored the need to finally pass a robust disaster relief package, noting it has been one of the longest stretches in her memory that Congress has failed to provide such relief.
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