Murray is leading efforts in Congress to increase federal resources for ferries
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced $13,500,000 for Kitsap Transit. The funding will allow Kitsap Transit to buy a new ferry, replacing its older vessel that operates between Kingston and downtown Seattle. The new vessel will improve service and reliability on a critical route to jobs, schools, doctors, and other essential services. The funding comes from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA)’s Passenger Ferry Grant Program and the Fiscal Year 2024 funding bills that Senator Murray authored, negotiated, and passed into law.
“Our ferries are an important part of how we get around here in Washington state and as Senate Appropriations Chair, I am working hard to make sure the federal government increases its investment in this critical mode of transportation,” said Senator Murray. “Millions of us here in Washington rely on our ferries for our daily commutes—to get to work, a doctor’s appointment, or anything else. We want safe, fast, and reliable ferries—I am going to do everything I can to help secure the resources we need to make that a reality.”
Murray secured $21 million for the Passenger Ferry Grant Program when she passed the Fiscal Year 2024 transportation funding bill into law in March 2024, a $6 million increase over Fiscal Year 2023. The available awards for the Passenger Ferry Grant Program for Fiscal Year 2024 total $51 million, combining the $21 million in discretionary funding Murray secured along with a boost of $30 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law; with today’s award, Washington state has received about 26% of the available federal funds from the Passenger Ferry Grant program. In that same bill, Murray secured $20 million for the Ferry Service for Rural Communities Program, and language that ensured Washington State Ferries could compete for these funds on their rural routes for the first time since the program was established in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
In the Senate transportation funding bill for Fiscal Year 2025, which Murray passed out of committee this past July, she secured $33 million for the Passenger Ferry Grant Program, a $12 million increase over Fiscal Year 2024—Murray is currently working to pass this bill into law before the end of the year. Under tough fiscal constraints, Murray is leveraging her role as Senate Appropriations Chair to gradually increase the federal government’s investments in ferry systems like Washington state’s.
Senator Murray also helped secure record funding for ferries in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law she helped pass as Assistant Majority Leader; the legislation included $2.3 billion for ferry boats and terminal infrastructure, including $250 million over five years for low or zero emission ferries and more than $17 billion for port and waterway infrastructure. Last year, Murray announced several grants from FTA for Washington State Ferries.
Murray has always been a stalwart champion for public transit, fighting to increase federal dollars for everything from light rail to bus rapid transit to our ferry system year after year.
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