Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, led a virtual press conference highlighting how President Trump’s ongoing, illegal funding freeze is hurting people and organizations across Washington state—forcing them to make impossible choices, costing jobs, and putting critical projects and hundreds of millions of dollars for everything from infrastructure improvements to culvert removal at risk. Joining Senator Murray for the press call were King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay, Washington State Department of Ecology Director Casey Sixkiller, and Joel Ryan, Executive Director of the Washington State Association of Head Start and ECEAP.
“People need to understand the Trump administration is still holding up billions of dollars, under Trump’s illegal Day One Executive Orders. We’re talking about funding Congress passed into law—funding that is owed to communities in Washington state and across the country,” Senator Murray said on this morning’s press call, outlining some of the ways President Trump’s ongoing illegal funding freeze from his Day One Executive Orders is putting critical projects and jobs in Washington state at risk:
- “The Washington State Department of Transportation has told me Trump is blocking money to repair electric chargers, to install heavy duty chargers for trucks, to make critical repairs to bridges in order to protect the safety of millions of drivers, and to install new chargers along major roads like I-90, US-97, US-2, US-195, and US-395.
- “Trump is holding up road projects to make streets safer for pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers—a safe streets project in Richland, critical safety barriers in Spokane are just a few of the examples.
- “Trump’s illegal freeze is, as we speak, blocking wildlife preservation work all over our state, and critical culvert replacement projects to help save our salmon.
- “There are port projects right now on hold across Washington state, including for electrical infrastructure, and shore power for vessels. Absolutely essential electric transmission and distribution projects are on hold and in jeopardy.
- “World class organizations in Washington state have told me they may have to lay people off this week—hundreds of people—because of Trump’s illegal funding freezes.
“Make no mistake: the chaos is not over. There are still billions of dollars being illegally held up—and so many jobs in Washington state that are on the line I am going to continue fighting this and pressing the administration every way I can to get them to end these illegal funding freezes,” Murray concluded. “I’m going to continue doing everything I can as Vice Chair of the Appropriations Committee to stand up and hold this administration to account, so we can get the money Congress passed into law flowing again to folks back home in Washington state.”
“This is money that should be flowing into our communities, creating jobs, protecting public health, and improving the environment. Instead, it is being delayed at the expense of the people who need it most,” said Casey Sixkiller, director of the Washington State Department of Ecology.
“King County is already grappling with a $150 million budget shortfall, putting essential services at risk. A freeze in federal funding would make this crisis even worse, threatening vital programs like healthcare, housing support, transportation, and services for veterans and seniors. For the people who depend on these services every day, these cuts aren’t just numbers—they’re lifelines that keep our community safe, healthy, and connected. Without immediate action and support, many of our most vulnerable neighbors will face even greater hardship,” said King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay.
“This past week and half have been chaotic and disruptive roller coaster ride for Head Start programs here in Washington State. The half day shutdown caused by the Trump Administration caused confusion and nearly led to thousands of children and families losing access to childcare. Yesterday we continued to receive reports that Head Start programs were struggling to access their federal grant dollars with one program as of today still unable to gain access. Across the country there remains over 40+ Head Start programs impacting more than 20,000 children dealing with this ‘rolling blackout’ putting very low income children and families at risk of losing services,” said Joel Ryan, Executive Director of the Washington State Association of Head Start and ECEAP.
TIMELINE OF EVENTS
January 20th: Within his first hours in office, President Trump signed a number of executive orders that illegally block funding that was signed into law to rebuild America’s infrastructure, lower families’ energy costs, create new, good-paying jobs, strengthen our national security, and more.
January 27th: Trump expanded his funding freeze dramatically when the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a sweeping, illegal memo directing a near-blanket freeze on virtually all federal funding, with carveouts for Social Security, Medicare, and “assistance provided directly to individuals.” Senator Murray immediately wrote a letter to OMB alongside House Appropriations Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) raising alarms about the sweeping directive and calling the acting director to restore funding, as the law requires.
January 28th: Senator Murray joined millions of Americans in decrying the chaos and pain President Trump’s freeze caused—as reports poured in from across the country about how it risked shuttering Head Start programs, cutting off disaster relief, jeopardizing cancer research, and much more. The White House, in trying to clarify the scope of the memo, instead created more chaos, confusion, and headaches for the American people.
January 29th: Senator Murray again slammed Trump’s devastating freeze cutting off funding families count on—noting that even programs the administration said were back online were, in fact, still shuttered, and she called on Trump to stop withholding funding. Then, facing nationwide backlash, President Trump had his OMB revoke its memo. But President Trump vowed to keep his freeze of hundreds of billions of dollars in funding tied up by his executive orders in place—and his aides continued their vows to block more funding signed into law.
RIGHT NOW: President Trump continues to hold up vast swaths of funding implicated by his illegal executive orders—and chaos and confusion pervade over whether funding implicated by his now-rescinded OMB memo has been fully restored.
His executive orders direct agencies to, among other things, halt disbursement of funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, foreign development assistance, and virtually any funding his administration deems “woke.”
President Trump’s ongoing freeze is holding up funding Congress delivered—often on a bipartisan basis—to:
- Rebuild America’s roads and bridges.
- Connect families to high-speed internet access.
- Upgrade transit and transportation infrastructure.
- Lower Americans’ energy costs.
- Create new, good-paying clean energy jobs.
- Strengthen America’s national security.
- Much more.
President Trump must rescind his executive orders—and stop blocking funding the American people are counting on. His failure to do so will:
- Kill good-paying American jobs.
- Delay—or altogether scrap—infrastructure projects all across the county.
- Raise American families’ energy costs.
- Create more chaos, confusion, and uncertainty that hurt families, businesses, small businesses, and local organizations and governments.
- Gut efforts to tackle the climate crisis and ensure every American has clean air and water.
- Halt work cleaning up Superfund sites contaminated with hazardous waste and substances.
- Undermine our national security and credibility on the world stage.
- Much more.
A fact sheet on the issue of impoundment—Trump’s unconstitutional scheme to withhold federal funding headed to communities across America—is HERE.
Senator Murray’s full remarks, as delivered on today’s press call, are below and video is HERE:
“Thank you everyone for joining us today. Last week, we saw a level of chaos and recklessness from the Trump administration that’s truly unlike anything I have seen in my lifetime, when the administration moved to brazenly and illegally freeze federal grants across government and across the country.
“The panic and the confusion were widespread. Because there was a long, long, list of programs President Trump tried to put on the chopping block.
“Then, less than 48 hours later, in the face of intense public backlash and outrage from people all over the country—they admitted they were disastrously wrong and revoked the OMB memo.
“But it’s really important that this fight is far from over. Not only is there still significant confusion—funding that was supposed to be turned back ‘on’ that is still not, it’s still locked up—but, just as importantly, people need to understand the Trump administration is still holding up billions of dollars, under Trump’s illegal Day One Executive Orders.
“We’re talking about funding that Congress passed into law—funding that is owed to communities in Washington state and across the country.
“Now, the harm they are causing with these funding freezes is hard to overstate, because this has never been done before.
“And we’ve been working around the clock to figure out exactly what all of this means, and who is affected—because they have been far from clear.
“But today I want to give you all a sense of what folks across our state have told me about what Trump’s ongoing, illegal funding freezes have meant for them.
“The Washington State Department of Transportation has told me that Trump is blocking money to repair electric chargers, to install heavy duty chargers for trucks, to make critical repairs to bridges in order to protect the safety of millions of drivers, and to install new chargers along major roads like I-90, US-97, US-2, US-195, and US-395.
“Trump is still holding up road projects that make streets safer for pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers—a safe streets project in Richland, critical safety barriers in Spokane are just a few of the examples.
“Trump’s illegal freeze is, as we speak, blocking wildlife preservation work all over our state, and critical culvert replacement projects to help save our salmon.
“There are port projects right now on hold across Washington state, including for electrical infrastructure, and shore power for vessels. Absolutely essential electric transmission and distribution projects are on hold and in jeopardy.
“And there are many other projects, organizations, and people—who are being harmed right now by the President’s reckless funding freeze.
“Medical researchers in Washington state who are worried that their work will somehow be considered ‘woke,’ when in reality, it’s actually pretty darn important we understand the roots of health disparities—things like why the maternal death rate is so much higher for Black and Native American women.
“Trump’s executive orders also froze lifesaving foreign assistance for people all around the globe.
“And world class organizations in our state, in Washington state, have told me they may have to lay people off this week—hundreds of people—because of Trump’s illegal funding freezes.
“It is just completely unclear when, or if these projects are going to get the funds they are counting on, and owed, from the bills Congress passed into law long before Trump came into office.
“So, make no mistake: the chaos is not over. There are still billions of dollars being illegally held up—and many jobs in Washington state are now on the line.
“I am going to continue fighting this and pressing the administration every way I can to make them end these illegal funding freezes.
“Democrats will speak out, we will challenge Trump’s illegal actions in the courts, we will demand accountability, and we will put the pressure on the administration and on our Republican colleagues.
“But we also need our Republican colleagues to say ‘enough.’ We need them to join us.
“Now, we learned something extremely important last week: that when the American people–all across our state, all across the country–speak out with one voice, and when regular people stand up, it makes a difference.
“So this fight is far from over—and I’m going to continue doing everything I can as Vice Chair of the Appropriations Committee to stand up and hold this administration to account, so we can get the money Congress—by both parties, Republicans and Democrats–passed into law flowing again to folks back home in Washington state.”
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