***WATCH: Senator Murray’s comments at budget markup***
Washington, D.C. — Today, at the Senate Budget Committee’s markup of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs portion of Republicans’ bill to send $70 billion more to ICE and Border Patrol while funding Trump’s golden ballroom, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a senior member and former Chair of the Senate Budget Committee, emphasized in opening comments that the bill Senate Republicans have put forth is a betrayal of Americans across the nation. Senator Murray underscored that Congress’ focus should be confronting the nation’s affordability crisis, as rising fuel and grocery prices stretch families’ budgets thin—not a partisan measure to fund ICE without any accountability—and Trump’s ballroom.
Senator Murray’s remarks, as delivered, are below:
“Thank you Mr. Chairman, and I too oppose this for the same reasons that you’ve heard from my colleagues, and I want to add to what Senator Kaine said.
“It is not that we oppose border security, and in fact we worked really hard in the negotiations originally to get some common-sense reform into ICE and border patrol. Things like having training longer than 48 days, so our ICE officers learned how to de-escalate rather than murder people on the street. So that they had ID, so that somebody knew if they were talking to an ICE agent who it was, so they could be identified for a lot of reasons. And things like warrants, so somebody wouldn’t bust into your house.
“These were common sense things we were asking for. Who refused every single time? Every common-sense request we made? [It] was Stephen Miller. And now what we have is a giant package that benefits only Donald Trump and Stephen Miller. That’s what this package is about.
“It is appalling to me that the Republicans are pushing a package of $70+ billion for three years on funding ICE and border patrol without any additional training or warrants or common-sense things that we believe the American people are asking for today.
“Any police officer should not be able to bust in your door and haul you out without a warrant. That’s America. No one should be able to shoot people in the streets without letting us know who they are, or why they’re there, without the training that would prevent those kinds of things from happening.
“So, instead of responding to us and working with us to get some common sense reforms, Republicans have now busted by every single protocol and are putting a bill on the floor that only requires Republicans to vote for it, for $72 billion, and Stephen Miller is pretty happy today, or will be by tomorrow night, or Friday.
“And who else is happy is Donald Trump. And I want to share the comments that we have heard on the golden ballroom.
“I go home and hear the same thing that Senator Merkley talked about: gas prices, health care costs, all of the energy prices that people are paying, the tariffs that were passed are impacting everybody’s pocketbook. They want us to address those, and what are Republicans putting on the floor? A giant package that addresses none of that.
“I think we make choices here about what we’re going to fight for. I think all of us come here and tell our constituents what we’re fighting for. What the Republicans are telling us today is they’re going to fight for a giant ballroom for this president and not for the American people, and we will oppose it.”
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