***RELOJ: Senator Murray’s Remarks***
Washington DC - Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, delivered the following remarks at this afternoon’s Senate Democratic leadership press conference. Murray discussed the final passage of the national security supplemental last week and the FY24 appropriations bills that were passed earlier this year. She also discussed what’s next for the FY25 appropriations process as it kicks off in earnest. Video of Senator Murray’s remarks is available AQUÍ.
Senator Murray’s remarks, as delivered, are below:
“Getting our annual funding bills passed and signed into law was not easy. Between that and the supplemental we just passed, we went through endless antics from House Republicans: replacing their own Speaker, renegotiating their own spending cap agreement, demanding the inclusion of hundreds of poison pills that were always going to be a nonstarter, and rejecting border policies they demanded in the first place.
“This political theater created unnecessary delays and came with a cost—with House Republicans threatening the full faith and credit of our country and our global leadership, bringing us to the brink of a shutdown several times over, and leaving our allies at war and civilians in need waiting for aid.
“It’s easy to see the cuts House Republicans wanted as numbers on a spreadsheet, tens of billions of dollars here, tens of billions of dollars there, but this isn’t a spreadsheet to our families: it’s child care, it’s the bridge they cross every day, it’s whether they can put food on the table—or whether the food is safe!
“As I have said before—we saw repeatedly that when House Republicans listened to the loudest voices on the farthest right, the ones who clearly don’t want to govern, they got nowhere.
“What a contrast to Democrats—who in the Senate and House provided the majority of the ‘yes’ votes to responsibly fund the government and support our allies.
“In the Senate, we worked together from the start—and while we didn’t end up with bills either side would have written on their own, we passed the strongest possible bipartisan funding bills to actually help people and solve problems.
“I and so many others worked with Republicans to build bipartisan support for all 12 appropriations bills that we marked up.
“And we wrote a security supplemental with Republicans that passed the Senate months ago by a large bipartisan margin—only to then wait weeks for it to come back so we could pass essentially the very same bill with some cosmetic changes.
“But let’s talk about what Democrats did get done.
“Democrats fought to send a billion dollar increase in child care and pre-k to President Biden’s desk—that makes a concrete difference for families.
“House Republicans wanted to slash WIC and force states to pick and choose which moms and which babies would get fed—Democrats fully funded WIC.
“Democrats protected the historic investments we’ve made alongside President Biden in climate action.
“And it was Democrats who protected investments in everything from education to health care to housing.
“And all while, House Republicans tried every way they could to ban abortion and rip away women’s reproductive freedoms in government funding bills.
“But I said from the start there would be no extreme, far-right riders to restrict women’s reproductive freedoms—and there were not.
“Now as we look to Fiscal Year 2025, I want everyone to really hear me.
“For me, the word of the day, today—and every day until we pass our funding bills—is going to be parity.
“By that, I mean that when my Republican colleagues insist that, despite the Fiscal Responsibility Act, we need to boost spending in national security, I will also insist that the boost to defense spending be matched with a similar increase for investments here at home.
“We do need stronger investments in our military and national security to address the challenges we face today.
“But investing in child care, in health care, in education, our environment, in workers, in critical research, and all of those other priorities here at home matters just as much as the investments we make in our military.
“Both are critically important, and I have faith the Senate Appropriations Committee will again do its job and fund the nation’s needs on a strong, bipartisan basis.
“I plan to once again mark up bills. This year will be tough from a resource perspective, and we need bipartisan cooperation and agreement to get it done and pass our bills.
“That’s my message for this fiscal year. Thank you.”
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