***WATCH: VIDEO of Senator Murray’s Floor Speech***
Washington DC - Today U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, spoke on the Senate floor ahead of consideration of the continuing resolution, urging her colleagues to engage in serious bipartisan and bicameral negotiations to pass full-year funding bills before the end of the year.
Murray’s full remarks, as delivered, are below:
“Thank you, M. President. I am very pleased we have a straightforward, bipartisan compromise to fund the government, and avoid a pointless, devastating shutdown. I hope every single one of my colleagues will join us in voting to pass this bill.
“But, M. President, our work does not end here. My hope is that now we can get going in earnest on hammering out bipartisan, full year funding bills—including providing long-overdue disaster assistance. It’s time for Democrats and Republicans to negotiate those bills together—instead of House Republicans just following the loudest voices on the far right.
“Because M. President, it is getting a little exhausting to watch some House Republicans push again and again for the most extreme, partisan cuts and policies—stuff that is not realistic at all—before learning the same lessons the hard way—yet again.
“You cannot strike a deal to govern with people who do not really want to govern. You can’t avoid a shutdown trying to placate the people who want a shutdown.
“But—here’s the important thing—you do not have to waste time trying. If you are serious about governing—you do not have to let a few extreme House Republicans set the agenda, or let Donald Trump call the shots.
“There is a better way. And I know, because it is the path that we’ve been following here in the Senate. Vice Chair Collins and I passed 11 funding bills out of Committee with overwhelming bipartisan support.
“We negotiated strong bills, that could actually be signed into law, and would make a real difference for folks back at home. We did it by listening to each other, listening to folks back home, rejecting partisan policies, and focusing on how we set our nation and families up for success.
“That is the same approach I hope we can now take, now that this CR gives us the time we need to negotiate bipartisan, bicameral, full year bills.
“M. President, I know that compromise takes time and hard work—I have hammered out many tough deals in my time here. But I think we have proven this Congress, many times over, that the path of bipartisanship is far easier—and far more productive—than the dead end MAGA extremism House Republicans keep making their very first priority.
“So let’s all vote to pass this CR. And then let’s get right to work, in a serious, bipartisan way on full year funding bills, and on meeting the long overdue disaster relief needs of so many of our states and our communities. Thank you.”
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