Senator Murray has worked tirelessly to fund the Northwest Straits Commission every single year since 1998
ICYMI: Senator Murray, Cantwell, and Rep. Larsen Reintroduce Legislation to Permanently Reauthorize Northwest Straits Commission
Washington, D.C. — Today, Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Maria Cantwell (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee and senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, announced that the Northwest Straits Marine Conservation Initiative Reauthorization Act of 2025 passed out of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. The legislation would reauthorize the Northwest Straits Commission in the Puget Sound, and fund it at $3 million each fiscal year for the next five years, through Fiscal Year 2031.
Murray and Cantwell’s bill will now have to pass through the full Senate and the House before it can be signed into law.
The Northwest Straits Commission is a community-led effort to restore marine habitats in the Northwest Straits region and address local threats to marine environments with projects such as restoring shellfish populations, protecting vulnerable ecosystems, and promoting growth for native water and shore-based plants. The Northwest Straits Commission provides funding, training, and support to seven county-based Marine Resources Committees (MRCs). The Commission advises local officials on how to best carry out environmental projects and provides expertise to community organizations to help them be partners in their work by, for example, training volunteers to identify forage fish spawning sites. Senator Murray led the authorization of the Northwest Straits Commission in 1998 and has secured federal funding for the Commission every single year in the decades since.
“I first established the Northwest Straits Commission with bipartisan support in 1998, to ensure our rich marine resources in the Northwest Straits stay healthy—which in Washington state is critical for our local communities, Tribes, and economy,” said Senator Murray. “This legislation would help provide a strong and consistent funding stream for the Commission and ensure partners on the ground can expand their efforts to protect our marine species and habitats and support our outdoor recreation economy. I am proud to continue leading the charge to authorize the Northwest Straits Commission, and I will keep fighting to secure federal funding for this effort as I have done since I first helped establish the commission.”
“The Puget Sound and the Straits are [among the busiest] waterways in the nation, and just happen to intersect with also some of the most beautiful habitat and species in the nation as well,” Sen. Cantwell said. “Having the Straits Commission continue to do their work is very important.”
The Northwest Straits Commission is supported by a wide range of stakeholders, including state and federal agencies, elected leaders, and Tribal partners throughout the Puget Sound Region.
The Northwest Straits Commission was established following the bipartisan partnership of Senator Murray and former Congressman Jack Metcalf. Murray and Metcalf released a report in 1998 that laid the groundwork for the Northwest Straits Commission and its work protecting marine habitats, and later that year, Senator Murray successfully authorized the Northwest Straits Commission for a six-year period. Over the years, Senator Murray has helped secure tens of millions of dollars in federal funding for the Northwest Straits Commission’s restoration work and research—part of Senator Murray’s longtime, steadfast commitment to salmon recovery in the Pacific Northwest.
Last year, as Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator Murray secured $1 million for the Northwest Straits Initiative through programmatic funding in the appropriations bills she wrote and passed into law in March 2024—this was the first time Northwest Straits received programmatic funding since the original authorization expired in 2004, and is significant in helping to ensure the Commission is funded. In the appropriations bills for Fiscal Years 2022 and 2023, Senator Murray secured a total of $6 million in Congressionally Directed Spending (CDS) funding for the Northwest Straits Commission; that funding was essential to the removal of the “Windjammer” sailboat that had been partially submerged near the Kukutali Preserve since 2009 on Swinomish Tribal tideland. Prior to the return of Congressionally Directed Spending in Fiscal Year 2022, Murray ensured the Northwest Straits Commission received annual funding through the EPA’s Puget Sound Geographic Program. Prior to that, Murray secured CDS funding for the Northwest Straits Commission after the original authorization for the Commission expired in 2004.
The text of the Northwest Straits Marine Conservation Initiative Reauthorization Act of 2025 is HERE.
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