Murray: “House Republicans are saying give Trump all this power, or we will shut down the government. But let’s be very clear: that is and always has been a false choice.”
Murray: “Before I close, I want to say to my constituents who are frightened or scared: I understand your fears. … But your voice matters. Speaking out matters. You elected me to be your voice, and you better believe I’m going to fight for you. So, shoulders up. Keep the faith. We’re going to keep fighting for the America we love.”
ICYMI: Murray, DeLauro Introduce Short-Term Continuing Resolution, Call on Congress to Pass Bipartisan Funding Bills
ICYMI: Analysis of Speaker Johnson’s Yearlong CR
***WATCH: Senator Murray’s floor remarks***
Washington, D.C. — Today, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chair, spoke on the Senate floor ahead of the cloture vote on House Republicans’ partisan continuing resolution (CR).
Senator Murray’s remarks, as delivered, are below:
“M. President, I have made no secret of my opposition to this bill. For weeks, I have been warning about the real dangers of a yearlong CR like the one that has come before us from House Republicans.
“But before I talk about those dangers and why I will be voting no on cloture and on final passage, I want my colleagues to hear what I have to say. But I do hope that they join me in voting no. I want to talk for a moment about how we did get here.
“Because I fear some members of Republican leadership may need a history lesson. The fact of the matter is: the only reason we are staring down a shutdown deadline halfway into the fiscal year is because the House Republicans decided to kick the can down the road with a major punt—and because they have repeatedly walked away from the table.
“This is just the historical record. We were all here for it. We saw what happened.
“But perhaps it’s worth ticking through once more, because I’ll admit it can get easy to lose track given all that’s happened over the last few months, and just how many times House Republicans have made a deal just to break it in recent years.
“So I want to give a refresher. It’s been a while since my time as a preschool teacher, but I guess school is back in session. Because I’m not going to let anyone get away with ignoring how Republicans forced us to the edge of a shutdown.
“Remember, last year, after a bruising FY24 process in which House Republicans made one ridiculous demand after the next and caused one delay after the other, as Appropriations Chair, I worked hard alongside my colleagues, including Senator Collins who is here today, within our Committee to write and pass serious bipartisan, spending bills for this current fiscal year.
“It was no easy feat. We had less resources at our disposal to make use of and we had even more challenges to address—but we managed to work together—Senator Collins and I, and our committee members—and we cleared all but one of our bills overwhelmingly in Committee. Many of those bills cleared in unanimous votes.
“Come November, after the election, I was pushing very hard to get our funding bills done and wrapped up by the end of the year. My Democratic colleagues—and even many of my Republican colleagues—wanted to get that done. But Speaker Johnson and Trump chose to kick the can down the road. They chose to.
“Trump reportedly wanted to make sure his fingerprints were on our spending bills for this fiscal year. And the Speaker not only wanted to please Trump, he was worried about how a messy funding fight might complicate his path to being speaker again. So, the decision was made—and Johnson punted from December to March.
“Then we negotiated a bipartisan CR to fund the government through March 14th today, along with that we passed disaster relief, and extend critical laws. We reached a bipartisan, bipartisan, bicameral deal. And then House Republicans walked away, and blew that deal up at the last minute.
“Why? All because the richest man in the entire world sent a bunch of completely inaccurate tweets. And instead of saying “You know what? Actually Elon, you have no clue what you are talking about, these are programs that help my constituents.”
“House Republicans said, “hmmm let’s put that guy in charge.” They killed the bipartisan agreement, rolled out an altogether different bill not long thereafter, and punted on government funding. That is what happened.
“And that is essentially what they have been doing ever since—cheering and clapping as Trump and Elon got basic facts wrong, broke laws, blocked funding that our communities needed, dismantled entire agencies, fired veterans, shuttered our Social Security offices, and break government to enrich themselves.
“And while Trump and Republican leadership were fixating on whether they pass one bill or two for their plan to cut health care for kids to pass more tax cuts for billionaires, a fast approaching deadline was on its way to us, one that’s here now.
“For the last several months, I have remained at the table, ready to negotiate funding bills. My Democratic counterpart in the House, Rosa DeLauro, and I never left the table. Not once. We made an offer, after an offer, as did our Republican counterparts.
“My top priority has been, and continues to be, doing what we do every year, which is passing full-year funding bills with the detailed directives that we include in our spending laws every year.
“I’ve wanted to ensure we continue to provide those and make sure our constituents voices are heard in federal funding, which, I have to say this CR fails to do.
“But instead of working with us, in good faith, to fund the government in a bipartisan way, Speaker Johnson and Republican leadership walked away and started working on a Republican funding bill—without an ounce, not an ounce, of Democratic input.
“I remained at the table, and my counterparts on appropriations and I continued to talk to keep the ball rolling. By the end of last week, for all intents and purposes, we had an agreement on topline funding.
“But the call had been made, the call had already been made. Johnson was in on it, Trump was in on it, Russ Vought was in on it. Johnson decided instead of talking with Democrats it would be easier to have Trump get on the phone and scream and bully House Republicans into submission.
“He figured if outright intimidation from Trump was enough to convince every Republican to vote for a budget resolution that will cut Medicaid for seniors and kids, then it might also be enough to get them to pass a Republican CR, especially if Trump threatened dissenters with political retribution, which, of course, he did. And that is the bill they rolled out on Saturday and passed earlier this week.
“Now, as I’ve laid out in depth, the yearlong CR House Republicans sent our way hands a blank check to Elon Musk and Donald Trump to decide how our constituents’ taxpayer dollars get spent all while they cut funding working people count on each and every day.
“It is anything but a ‘clean CR.’
“What Republicans are pushing here is not a continuing resolution. In this case CR stands for Complete Resignation. Because what Republicans are doing here is ceding more discretion to two billionaires to decide what does, and does not, get funded in their states.
“It is a power grab CR.
“But not only that, it does make serious cuts to domestic funding. It leaves working families in the dust.
“We are talking about a nearly 50% cut to lifesaving medical research into conditions affecting our servicemembers. It is a giant shortfall in funding for NIH. It is a massive cut in funding for Army Corps projects, and $15 billion less for domestic priorities. M. President, this bill will force Social Security to cut staff and close offices, and make it harder for seniors to get the benefits they spent their careers paying into the system to earn. It creates a devastating shortfall that risks tens of thousands of Americans losing their housing.
“So, this bill causes real pain for communities across the country. And it empowers Trump and Musk to pick winners and losers, and I guarantee you they will not only go after Democrats.
“Inexplicably, House Republicans are saying give Trump all this power, or we will shut down the government. Well let’s be very clear: that is and always has been a false choice.
“The reality is, there were other options House Republicans could have chosen but they chose, they chose to pull out of bipartisan negotiations and send a deeply partisan bill here to the Senate today.
“Democrats didn’t have an ounce of input into writing this bill, and now House Republicans expect us to support it? That makes zero sense.
“Let me be clear: in my time in Congress, never, ever has one party written partisan, full-year appropriations bills for all of government and expected the other party to go along without any input.
“To my colleagues here who want to pass individual appropriations bills in a timely manner for next fiscal year, how are Democrats supposed to trust they will be talking to us in good faith negotiations?
“After we did the hard work of negotiating overwhelmingly bipartisan appropriations bills last year, only for us to see this today from Republicans in the House. Only for Republicans to now say swallow this partisan House Republican CR, or it will be Democrats that are shutting down the government?
“That is a false choice, and one we cannot accept going forward.
“When I cast my vote today, I’m representing the nearly 8 million people in Washington state, and in this democracy, their voices count for something, so you better believe I am not handing over my vote in exchange for nothing.
“The choice is not a government shutdown, or passing a bill to write a blank check to Elon Musk. It is not. That is not how this works.
“On Monday, I rolled out a clean four-week extension to prevent a shutdown and to keep government funded while giving us the time to hammer out a bipartisan agreement. We could still pass it right here, and right now. If any member has any suggestions on what they’d want to see in the CR, I am all ears.
“House Republicans may have left town already but I am pretty sure they know how to get on a plane. That is their job. Show up and vote.
“The bottom line is: this bill will mean more pain and chaos for our country, I cannot support it.
“And please let’s remember: Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the White House. If you refuse to put forward an offer that includes any Democratic input and you don’t get Democratic votes—that’s on Republicans. If you don’t get any input from Democrats, it’s a Republican vote. A shutdown is on Republicans.
“The American people rightly understand Republicans have pushed this country towards a shutdown. They do understand Donald Trump has created massive economic uncertainty and is putting us on track for a Republican recession with his indiscriminate layoffs, his illegal funding freeze, his incoherent trade war, and now by threatening a Republican shutdown.
“Democrats did not write this bill, we didn’t have any input, but if we had, we sure wouldn’t have handed over more of our power to two billionaires.
“You can bet we wouldn’t have cut our domestic investments by billions.
“Democrats did not write this bill, but if we did we would have protected our public schools.
“Democrats did not write this bill, but if we did we would have put veterans first.
“And you can bet we wouldn’t have prevented the District of Columbia from spending its own taxpayer dollars and be forced to lay off police and teachers.
“Democrats did not have any say on this bill, but if we did we would have protected our public lands, your health care, and lifesaving cancer research.
“So, I hope my Democratic, and yes, my Republican colleagues as well, will join me in voting no on this bill, and swiftly passing a four-week extension so we can hammer out a better, bipartisan solution instead.
“I am voting no because my constituents should have a say in how their tax dollars are spent.
“I am voting no because Congress, Congress, each one of us, not Elon Musk should decide which schools or hospitals get funding.
“I am voting no, and I hope my of colleagues to join me.
“Before I close, M. President, I want to say to my constituents who are frightened and scared: I understand your fears. Some days I share them.
“But your voice matters. Speaking out matters. You elected me to be your voice, and you better believe I will keep fighting for you.
“So, shoulders up. Keep the faith. We stand strong, but do not stand down. We’re going to keep fighting for the America we love.
“Thank you.”
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