(Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, voted to pass the 2022 bipartisan government spending package. The spending package consists of 12 fiscal year 2022 appropriations bills as well as an additional supplemental funding bill to support Ukraine.
“When I enter any room to negotiate legislation with my colleagues—I’m thinking about what I can do to make life better for the people in Washington state,” said Senator Murray. “When I’m fighting for affordable housing, I’m thinking of the people I met in Vancouver who were able to keep a roof over their heads thanks to emergency housing vouchers. When I pushed my colleagues in Congress to boost funding for child care and Head Start, I’m thinking of the countless moms I’ve met who want to get back to work but can’t because their kids are 200th on a waiting list for the only provider in town. To me, our nation’s budget is about our values—so I want to make sure we are spending federal dollars on things that will make life better for working people in Washington state.
“I want the students I met at Skagit Valley College last year to be able to graduate without mountains of debt, I want our military families at Fairchild Air Force Base to be able to afford what they need, I want the young people in Yakima Valley to be able to take advantage of an apprenticeship and get a good-paying job—government spending needs to be about creating opportunity,” continued Senator Murray. “My job is making sure that Washington state’s priorities are the federal government’s priorities, so whether that’s getting more money for child care and Pell Grants, or making sure the federal government is living up to its obligations to the Hanford community—that’s what I’m going to keep fighting for every single day in the other Washington.”
Among other major investments that will help people in Washington state, the funding bill includes several top priorities for Senator Murray:
- A 2.7% raise for Washington state servicemembers.
- The biggest boost in funding to Washington state public schools, and schools across the country, in over a decade.
- Historic funding for Head Start Programs and a $400 annual increase in the maximum Pell Grant for students.
- A reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act that includes Senator Murray’s Survivors’ Access to Supportive Care Act.
- This bill includes $2.595 billion for the cleanup of the Hanford site—notably, this is $128 million above the President’s Budget Request.
- Investments in cutting edge research as a part of President Biden’s cancer moonshot project.
- Funding for projects greenlit by the Bipartisan Infrastructure law that will help create jobs everywhere in Washington state.
Senator Murray fought to secure a 6.7% increase in non-defense discretionary spending, a $46 billion increase and the largest increase in four years, to allow Congress to make $730 billion total in new investments in science and research, health care, climate change adaptation and mitigation, supporting mental health and combatting the opioid epidemic, and the implementation of the bipartisan infrastructure bill, among other priorities. The legislation also provides $782 billion in defense funding, much of which supports jobs in Washington state as well as supporting Washington state servicemembers and military families.
Of note, Senator Murray secured more than $116 million in direct funding for local community projects across Washington state. A full list of local projects in Washington state that Murray secured funding for can be found HERE.
###
English 
Spanish