***WATCH: Senator Murray’s full remarks***
Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, delivered the following remarks on appropriations and President Trump and Republicans’ backward funding priorities at this afternoon’s Senate Democratic leadership press conference.
Senator Murray’s remarks, as delivered, are below:
[TRUMP & REPUBLICANS’ FUNDING PRIORITIES]
“Let’s talk about priorities for this year because Trump certainly has told us what his are. A $1.5 trillion war budget. That is a nearly half a trillion increase. For families here at home—for things like housing and child care? A 10% cut.
“Well, apparently $1.5 trillion isn’t enough, because last week Pete Hegseth came back demanding $70 billion for a war that is spiraling out of control and driving gas prices through the roof. Couldn’t tell us how the war would end, just that he wanted more money for it. No strategy. No endgame. No justification. And Trump has promised a deal for months.
“Every time Trump says an end to the war he should have never started is around the corner, the bill for his forever war goes bigger. ‘Just trust me’ is not a strategy, and it sure isn’t worth $70 billion of taxpayer dollars. Congress is not an ATM for Trump’s forever wars.
“Taxpayers do not want us to rubberstamp a blank check for Trump to drop bombs overseas while health care costs are sky-high at home. Republicans might choose war and defense contractors as their top funding priorities—but Democrats actually care about the families here at home.
[ON TOPLINES]
“So, instead of telling the president to kick rocks, Republicans in Congress have been pushing hard to give Trump everything he wants—a massive increase in war funding while families get left behind.
“Sorry, but no. I’ve worked in good faith to try to land a bipartisan topline funding agreement to ensure that we do invest in families, not defense contractors. But time and time again Republicans have made clear they cannot be where they have been for years on parity—the compromise that has guided many funding deals, which provides roughly equal increases for defense and nondefense.
“This time, Republicans want to deliver over four new dollars in defense [funding] for every dollar in nondefense. And because of that, my Democratic colleagues and I have been clear we will not accept their topline and will instead continue to push for a fair, bipartisan topline like the ones we reached the last three years, which allowed us to draft and pass good bipartisan bills.
“As families get crushed by higher costs—and as we are about to head over the infrastructure cliff October 1, when roughly over $65 billion in critical annual funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law runs dry—we should be delivering major new investments to help our families get by, not supersizing Trump’s war budget.
“Democrats are at the table. We are ready to write serious, bipartisan bills that lower costs and keep this country safe. But we will not shortchange America’s families to bankroll Donald Trump’s forever war.
[CR NEGOTIATIONS]
“Now, at this point, because of everything I just discussed, we will need more time to get our funding bills done.
“No one wants a shutdown in October, so I have been working with Chair Collins to prepare a CR that takes us into December—and we will fix the problems with the bill House Republicans drafted and passed last week. Good, bipartisan work continues on that.
“And you can bet that as we work on annual funding for the year ahead, my Democratic colleagues and I are going to keep pushing to actually make life more affordable and to spend the American people’s hard-earned tax dollars reinvesting in our families and communities across America instead of writing Trump a blank check to threaten war crimes halfway around the world.”
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