ICYMI: In Setting Nation’s Spending Priorities, Patty Murray Puts Washington State and Working Families First

Across both funding packages, Murray secures $5.16 billion for WA, which includes nearly $242 million in Congressionally Directed Spending and $4.9 billion for other WA projects

FIRST FY24 SPENDING PACKAGE: As Appropriations Chair, Murray Secures Billions for WA Priorities in Six-Bill Funding Package; Fully Funds WIC & Protects Programs for Working Families – MORE AQUÍ

SECOND FY24 SPENDING PACKAGE: Murray Delivers $372 Million More for Washington State, $1 Billion More for Child Care & Pre-K, Puts Working Families First – MORE AQUÍ

ICYMI: Former Preschool Teacher Patty Murray Delivers $1 Billion More to Help Families Find and Afford Child Care & Pre-K – MORE AQUÍ

ICYMI: Murray Secures Full Funding for WIC, Protecting Lifesaving Benefits for Nearly 7 Million Moms & Kids Nationwide – MORE AQUÍ

Seattle, WA – In case you missed it, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, secured passage of a second six-bill spending package early Saturday morning on March 23, 2024, closing the book on annual government spending for Fiscal Year 2024—Murray secured passage of the first six-bill spending package on March 8. With all twelve annual government funding bills passed, Murray secured $5.16 billion for WA, which includes nearly $242 million in Congressionally Directed Spending and $4.9 billion set aside specifically for other Washington state projects—that does not include funding for national programs that will later be allocated on a competitive or formula-specific basis.

Murray helped author, negotiated, and led passage of all twelve government funding bills in her role as Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Murray fought hard to protect and strengthen Washington state investments and to prioritize programs that matters to kids, families, and working people across all twelve bills. Of particular note, Murray secured full funding for WIC and a billion-dollar boost for federal child care and pre-k programs.

Here’s what national and Washington state outlets are saying since Murray delivered on all twelve full-year funding bills.

SPOKESMAN REVIEW: How Patty Murray helped craft a compromise to fund the government despite chaos in Congress: ‘Nobody thought we could get this done’

By Orion Donovan Smith – March 23, 2024

• “While Murray’s role requires her to consider the entire country’s needs, she said she always has Washington state in mind. The package includes more than $3 billion for cleanup of the Hanford nuclear site – the largest amount for the long-running project – along with increased funding for the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.”
• “‘These are things that I hear about at home, big and little,’ Murray said. ‘When I’m sitting here and we’re negotiating the last bill, and people are pulling things out or putting things in, I can put my hand down and go, ‘No, that one’s not going anywhere.’”
• “‘I think a lot of credit goes to Chairman Murray and Ranking Member Collins,’ said Hoagland, who served between 2003 and 2007 as budget and appropriations director for then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. ‘These are serious legislators. They know how to get things done.’”
• “Another big priority for Murray is child care, for which the funding package includes a $1 billion increase… ‘So for me, being chair of Appropriations this year, I made it very clear from the start that across the committees I wanted to do anything we could in each of the committees to help address that problem.’”
• “‘We have an obligation to make sure that we have our country function,’ [Murray] said. ‘And appropriations is sort of central to that. I mean, if you look at a family’s budget, you can’t be fighting every day over how much you’re going to be spending on the grocery bill. We really felt that the country needed certainty, not chaos.’”

NEW YORK TIMES: How Patty Murray Used Her Gavel to Win $1 Billion for Child Care

By Catie Edmondson – March 29, 2024

• “A self-described ‘mom in tennis shoes,’ now the Senate Appropriations Committee leader, managed to win an increase in child care subsidies in a spending freeze.”

• “Senator Patty Murray got inspired to enter politics when a male state legislator derided her efforts to fight budget cuts to early education programs, calling her ‘just a mom in tennis shoes’ — a remark she would proudly adopt as her campaign slogan. So it came as little surprise that more than 40 years later, Ms. Murray, now the chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, managed to emerge from excruciating negotiations over funding the federal government with a big victory aimed at children and families. Tucked into the $1.2 trillion spending law Congress cleared last week was an additional $1 billion for a single year for child care and early education programs.”
• “Previous leaders of the Senate Appropriations Committee, one of the most powerful perches in Congress, have historically used their pens to steer funding to their own priorities… For Ms. Murray, it is child care — an issue that historically has had few powerful constituencies on Capitol Hill. It is the continuation of decades of work aimed at strengthening families’ access to affordable child care.”
• “Since 2015, when Ms. Murray took over as the top Democrat on the labor and health spending panel, and with Ms. DeLauro leading the appropriations subcommittee in the House, funding for child care and Head Start has increased by more than 250 percent, or $6.3 billion.”
• “Separately, Ms. Murray secured $277 million in this year’s military construction funding bill to establish six new child development centers on installations to provide military families with more child care options — and added $60 million more than the Biden administration requested to design additional child development centers.”
• “Congressional leaders will soon begin negotiating the spending bills due this fall to fund the government next year. For Ms. Murray, the increases to child care funding secured this month are just the beginning. ‘To me, this comes from my gut. I just fundamentally believe this is an issue we have to deal with,’ Ms. Murray said. ‘I’m hoping that globally, with this appropriations bill, our country accepts that child care is something we have to focus on if we all want to be a better nation.’”

SEATTLE TIMES OPINION COLUMN: Channeling old political spirits, Sen. Murray rains money on WA

By Danny Westneat – March 23, 2024

• “These are the first spending plans passed with Murray at the helm of the uber-powerful Senate Appropriations Committee. It’s the first time in more than four decades that a Washington state politician has apportioned the federal river of money, since the late Sen. Warren Magnuson last chaired the same committee.”
• “It’s fair to say that Murray in her first budget has channeled Magnuson’s spirit — by embracing the controversial “pork-barreling” exercise of doling out earmarks, and by absolutely raining money on her home state. Murray alone secured nearly 100 earmarked projects for Washington, totaling a quarter-billion dollars… Murray went to the Senate floor and, in an 18-minute speech, not only defended her own earmarks, but unabashedly boasted of the billions of dollars she’s channeling to her home state.”
• “She described her process, which is to meet with constituents, hear their needs — and then bring ‘em the money. ‘I take the voices I hear in Washington state — the people I meet — into every room I enter, and write their concerns into every bill I negotiate,’ Murray said. ‘It’s a responsibility I take very seriously — especially as chair of the Appropriations Committee.’”
• “This is total throwback politics. It took 30 years for Murray to get the appropriations gavel. She is wielding it for the home folks right now as if somebody might be about to snatch it away.”
• “Whichever view you take, the news here is that our senior senator continues to be underestimated. I’m reminded of the 1990s saying ‘don’t hate the player, hate the game.’ These are the rules of politics… Right now, there’s no one who’s playing the game as it is better than Murray.”

THE COLUMBIAN EDITORIAL: Serious legislator Patty Murray gets things done

By Columbian Editorial Board – March 26, 2024

• “In an age when bluster often is confused with leadership, an unassuming senator from Washington plays a key role in ensuring the federal government remains functional. Last week, Democrat Patty Murray once again helped avert a government shutdown.”
• “Getting things done has been a recurrent theme throughout Murray’s 31 years in the Senate. A quick internet search reveals years of headlines such as ‘Patty Murray likely to be a key voice in Senate on budget deal’ and ‘How Patty Murray sold Democrats on the budget deal’ and ‘Patty Murray leads Democrats’ charge toward funding showdown with House GOP.’”

TRI-CITY HERALD: Biden signs record $3B annual spending for Hanford nuclear site in Eastern WA

By Annette Cary – March 11, 2024

• President Biden signed a spending bill Saturday that includes a record annual budget of just over $3 billion for the Hanford nuclear site in Eastern Washington and averted a partial government shutdown that would have included the Department of Energy. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., chair of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, advocated for the record Hanford budget.
• “‘Sen. Murray’s role as the Senate Appropriations chair has been instrumental in ensuring that the federal government fulfills its responsibility towards the Hanford site and its workers,’ said Nickolas Bumpaous, business manager for United Association of Plumbers & Steamfitters Local 598.”

WASHINGTON STATE STANDARD: More federal money for child care is coming to Washington

By Laurel Demkovich – April 4, 2024

• “As part of the federal funding package Congress approved last month, the state will receive almost $12 million more over the next year to help low-income families pay for child care, according to estimates from The Center for Law and Social Policy. That brings Washington’s total for the federal grant program this money will flow under to around $128 million… Washington Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, chair of the Appropriations Committee, said she wanted to make child care funding a top priority in the country’s budget. ‘I think it makes a difference when you have a former preschool teacher — and someone who lived what it means to be a working mom with young kids — holding the pen on our nation’s spending bills,’ Murray said on the Senate floor during passage of the spending plan.”
• “Murray, who’s worked on child care issues her entire political career, said in a statement that the new funding will help lower child care costs for more families in Washington, though she acknowledged there’s a lot more work to be done to increase affordability. ‘I’ll keep pushing for progress every way I can,’ Murray said.”

FLASHBACK FROM THE WASHINGTON POST: Patty Murray leads Democrats’ charge toward funding showdown with House GOP

By Paul Kane – July 26, 2023

• “Senate Appropriations Committee chair has a mantra for anyone who underestimates her: ‘Prove them wrong’”
• “Murray now figures to be a key presence in a fall showdown with House Republicans, who have overseen a highly partisan process with deep cuts that were not part of a spring deal between President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). In addition, House Republicans have loaded their funding bills with provisions meant to appease a couple dozen far-right ideologues even as those Republicans cheer on the looming chances of another federal government shutdown.”
• “A key to her career has been having opponents who underestimate her, in both her campaigns and her legislative deals… ‘How many times have I been told “You can’t do something”? I mean, a million times,’ [Murray] said, rattling off doubts about several deals with Ryan and Alexander. ‘I’ve been told that so many times. I guess, to me, it’s like: Prove them wrong.’”

###