Murray leads Senate Appropriations Committee in passing three draft appropriations bills – MORE HERE
READ and WATCH: Chair Murray’s Opening Remarks at Full Committee Markup
Washington, D.C. — Today, the Senate Appropriations Committee, led by Chair Patty Murray (D-WA), voted to advance the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies; Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies; and Legislative Branch appropriations bills for fiscal year 2025 that Senator Murray played a key role in writing. All three bills were approved unanimously.
In the draft bills, Senator Murray secured $815.655 million in funding for key Congressionally Directed Spending (CDS) projects, agricultural research, and military construction projects across Washington state. As she helped write the legislation, Senator Murray worked to ensure the bills fully fund WIC, support our veterans and military families, invest in agricultural research, protect our food supply and consumers’ health and safety, and more.
“The bills I wrote and passed through committee today are about making sure kids and families in Washington state don’t go hungry, helping our farmers and rural communities succeed, boosting cutting-edge agricultural research happening in Washington state, and supporting our servicemembers and veterans who have sacrificed so much for our country—ensuring they have the health care, housing, and quality training facilities they need and deserve,” said Senator Murray. “I fought hard to make sure this legislation would fully fund WIC and other critical nutrition programs, so that moms and babies can get the nutrition benefits they need, rather than being told to get in line—I know firsthand how important that is.”
“Our legislation provides essential funding for VA medical care and another historic boost for women veterans’ health care—who deserve a VA that works for them—as well as strong oversight of the EHR program, to ensure we are on a path to fixing the many system issues our veterans and providers are continuing to face as a result of the botched rollout in Spokane and Walla Walla,” Murray continued. “The needs in Washington state were top of mind for me as I was writing these bills, and I made sure local projects and priorities important to folks in every corner of our state were reflected throughout. I’m proud that we were able to pass these bills through Committee today with overwhelming bipartisan support—I’ll be working tirelessly to pass the rest of our funding bills out of committee and to get all of our funding bills to the President’s desk.”
Highlights, key provisions, and funding Senator Murray secured in each of the funding bills are below:
Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration Appropriations Bill
In the draft legislation, Senator Murray secured $9.795 million for five important CDS projects in Washington state:
- $210,000 for the City of Ferndale to replace emergency management equipment to respond to natural disasters.
- $1.5 million for the Olympic Peninsula YMCA to construct an early learning center.
- $2 million for the Skokomish Indian Tribe to construct a new educational services building offering services to K-12 youth.
- $3 million for the Tri-State Memorial Hospital for the design and renovation of a surgical center.
- $3.085 million for equipment and construction at the Agricultural Research Service’s worksite in Prosser, which is co-located with Washington State University’s Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center.
Senator Murray also secured a number of national funding priorities that are particularly important to Washington state, including:
- Full funding for WIC—protecting essential nutrition assistance and benefits for 7 million women and kids nationwide, including 204,026 mothers, children, and infants in Washington state. Senator Murray fought tooth and nail during fiscal year 2024 negotiations to fully fund the program in the face of House Republicans’ proposed cuts that would have forced states to deny benefits to eligible families.
- Full funding for child nutrition programs—including the new, permanent Summer EBT program Murray established that is helping an estimated 550,000 children across Washington state get summer grocery benefits.
- Funding to sustain housing assistance to help families in rural communities keep a roof over their heads.
- $38 million more for the Agricultural Research Service, including $5.85 million in new funding for research that will help Washington state farmers and ranchers, in particular. Much of such research takes place at Washington State University. In addition to ongoing research activities, the bill includes the following increases important to Washington state:
- $250,000 more for research on detection and mitigation of Little Cherry Disease and the vector insects involved. This builds on a $500,000 increase Senator Murray secured in fiscal year 2024.
- $2 million to establish a new Resilient Barley Initiative to coordinate research efforts focused on strengthening barley’s resilience to climate stressors that threaten the supply through improved genetics and management.
- $1.4 million to establish a new Potato Plant Pathologist for research on detection and mitigation of insect vector pathogens in the Columbia River Basin, which pose a threat to the sustainable production of nationally important vegetable and seed crops in the Northwest.
- $1.7 million more for the Resilient Livestock Initiative, which was first established by Senator Murray in fiscal year 2024 at $1 million, to conduct research on livestock’s ability to resist diseases and thrive in harsh climates.
- $500,000 more to continue research to identify 6PPD alternatives, a compound in rubber tires that the University of Washington and Washington State University researchers have shown to be toxic to coho salmon once oxidized. This builds on the $1 million Senator Murray secured in fiscal year 2024.
- $650,000 to establish a new position of seafood industry liaison in the Office of the Secretary at USDA to support U.S. seafood as a priority food commodity—and to position American seafood to be more competitive in domestic and global seafood markets.
- $2 million to reinstate the 5-year Vineyard and Orchard Acreage Survey and resume data collection and reporting so grape, wine, and juice producers can continue to remain competitive and respond to challenges in the industry. Data has not been collected for the survey since 2018.
- $1 million more for FDA to regulate cosmetics—building on the $7 million in new funding Senator Murray secured in fiscal year 2024 after she negotiated and secured passage of landmark reforms to better protect consumers from unsafe cosmetics.
- New language encouraging FDA to engage with researchers and providers on perimenopause, menopause, and mid-life women’s health—as Senator Murray pushes to boost menopause research and expand training and awareness with her recently-introduced bipartisan legislation.
A full summary of the bill is available HERE.
Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill
In the draft legislation, Senator Murray secured $774.85 million in funding for specific military construction projects across Washington state (which does not include funding for national programs that will later be allocated on a competitive or formula-specific basis):
- $182.2 million for CVN 78 aircraft carrier electric upgrades at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.
- $161 million for barracks at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
- $40 million for power generation and microgrid upgrades at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
- $31 million for Army supply support activity facilities at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
- $26.61 million for the parachute survival training facility at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
- $40 million for the National Guard and Reserve joint forces headquarters facility at Camp Murray.
- $200.55 million for the launcher equipment processing building at Bangor.
- $54 million for the hydrant fueling system at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island.
- $39.49 million for a microgrid and backup power system at Naval Magazine Indian Island.
Senator Murray secured $25.16 million for five important CDS projects in Washington state:
- $5.7 million in additional funding for the National Guard and Reserve joint forces headquarters facility at Camp Murray, a new state-of-the-art facility.
- $2.5 million for the planning and design of a new aircraft parts warehouse to support the KC-135 fleet at Fairchild Air Force Base.
- $4.5 million for the planning and design of taxi lane pull-through spots at Fairchild Air Force Base.
- $6 million for the Washington Army National Guard to update a controlled humidity warehouse, which will reduce maintenance on vehicles due to environmental corrosion.
- $6.46 million for the planning and design of a new wastewater treatment plant at the Yakima Training Center.
Senator Murray also secured a number of national funding priorities that are particularly important to Washington state, including:
- $2 billion for the Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization for design and construction of projects at each of the four public shipyards, including at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.
- $3.2 billion to combat veteran homelessness and support veterans and their families experiencing housing insecurity—$97 million more than in fiscal year 2024. In particular, Senator Murray secured $661.5 million—a $41.5 million increase over fiscal year 2024—for the HUD-VASH program she restarted in 2010.
- Record investments in women veterans’ health care—providing $1.3 billion, $333 million more than in fiscal year 2024, for gender-specific health care services, as well as initiatives and improvements to health care facilities. Senator Murray also secured language requiring VA to submit a report on the care available to women veterans for early detection, diagnosis, and treatment of perimenopause and menopausal symptoms, including efforts to advance care coordination and expand access to appropriate services.
- $2.9 billion to help VA implement the caregivers program Senator Murray helped establish and to extend legacy participant eligibility and benefits—which is $500 million more than fiscal year 2024.
- $18.6 million to expand the VA’s Child Care Pilot Program established by Senator Murray which seeks to eliminate barriers for veterans in need of child care while attending medical appointments, and $3 million for infrastructure modifications to support the VA’s work to create drop-in child care centers.
- $165 million for the design and construction of additional child development centers to expand access to child care for military families.
- Additional language to ensure continued and consistent oversight of VA and Oracle-Cerner in the rollout of the Electronic Health Records Modernization program that builds on Senator Murray’s ongoing oversight efforts.
A full summary of the bill is available HERE.
Legislative Branch Appropriations Bill
More information about the Legislative Branch appropriations bill that Senator Murray played a key role in writing is available HERE.
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