Senator Murray Opening Remarks at Full Committee Mark Up of Defense and Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Bills
***WATCH: Senator Murray’s opening remarks***
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, delivered the following opening remarks as the committee meets to consider the draft fiscal year 2026 Defense and Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies appropriations acts.
Senator Murray’s opening remarks, as delivered, are below:
“As I have said, these are not the bills I would have written on my own—but they nevertheless represent serious bipartisan work to make some truly critical investments in families and our country’s future.
“From defense funding that supports our military and keeps our country safe to funding for health care, child care, schools, seniors, medical research, public health, workforce training and safety—and many other programs that keep our communities strong.
“The priorities laid out in both of these bills are fundamental to our nation’s security and Americans’ livelihoods and health.
“So I’m glad this Committee was able to deliver and reach a bipartisan compromise to write these bills that deliver essential funds to help people, solve problems, and reject many of the absolutely devastating cuts and much of the chaos that President Trump was pushing for.
“It remains clear as ever to me that we cannot afford to go down the path Trump and Russ Vought want to push us down. Their vision is one where this Committee becomes less bipartisan and less powerful. Where the president and the OMB director call the shots and some Republicans in Congress spend their time cutting what they are told to cut, even at the expense of their own constituents. Where instead of securing new investments for folks back home through bipartisan agreements, lawmakers have to plead their case to this administration to unlock funds we have already delivered or secure special exceptions for spending cuts. Where biomedical research and education funding gets held up for no reason at all. Where we gut investments in working families while letting Trump’s corruption run rampant.
“That’s what Trump and Vought want.
“We can—and we must—reject it.
“Because, there is no comparison between having a bipartisan process, that gives our constituents a say in how their tax dollars are spent. Or another slush fund CR that forfeits our power and lets Trump rob some states, and pick winners and losers regardless of what our communities actually need or the law says.
“The bills we are voting on today really show how big of a difference there is here. Anyone who has doubts about that, can just look at the LHHS bill.
“It rejects Trump’s cuts that would have devastated our work to fight substance use disorders, HIV, and pandemics, eliminate women’s health investments like Title X funding and the Teen Pregnancy Prevention program and essentially saw the CDC cut in half.
“It rejects backward proposals from Trump that would hurt our students and workers—like eliminating preschool grants, or slashing PELL, gutting public school funding, or ending Job Corps and AmeriCorps.
“It rejects efforts to gut agencies that protect the rights of patients, students, and workers.
“And, I’m especially pleased to note it rejects Trump’s 40% cut to lifesaving medical research—and increases the NIH budget by $400 million so we continue to make progress against cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and so much more.
“To the scientists wondering if there will even be an NIH by the end of this administration: this committee’s resounding message is ‘yes.’
“Congress has your back—we’re not going to give up the fight against cancer, Alzheimer’s, or rare diseases.
“We support you and we need you to stay here and keep this research going.
“But I want to be clear—at the end of the day, this isn’t about rejecting Trump, it is about investing in our families.
“Investing in our schools, in medical research, in workforce training, and community health.
“In fact, this bill even increases funding for crucial programs with new investments to allow the Social Security Administration to actually help people and undo some of the damage that Trump and DOGE have recklessly caused and increased investments in child care—something I will never stop fighting to make more progress on.
“Now, one thing this bill does not do, unfortunately, is fund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
“As everyone knows, Republicans rescinded bipartisan funding we provided for CPB in the first ever partisan rescissions package.
“It is a shameful reality—and now communities across the country will suffer the consequences as over 1,500 stations lose critical funding.
“I really hope Republicans will join us to restore this funding down the line—and I want you to know I am going to keep pushing to do that.
“Before I close, I want to say: I am clear-eyed: the investments we make in these bills today are really only half of the equation.
“Because the fact of the matter is we have an administration right now that is intent on ignoring Congress, breaking the law, and doing everything it can without any transparency to dismantle programs and agencies that help families.
“There is no magic bullet that will change that unfortunate reality.
“Our bills reject devastating cuts—and reject many of this administration’s absurd proposals—like dismantling the Department of Education, like destroying HHS, and more.
“But I still want to see us to do much more when it comes to demanding accountability, demanding transparency, and demanding the administration actually follow our laws.
“We all know President Trump cannot dismantle the Department of Education or ship education programs to other agencies. Authorizing laws prevent that. Appropriations laws prevent that. Yet, that has not stopped him from shipping CTE and adult education programs to DOL in violation of our laws.
“And Secretary McMahon says she wants to do the same for Title I and IDEA.
“So I am very glad our LHHS bill takes new steps to ensure she cannot do that, and Title I and IDEA programs students depend on do not get dismantled or moved out of ED.
“But I'd like this bill to also do the same for every other education program that states administer, to prevent states from having to deal with the chaos of these dismantling efforts, and I’m disappointed there was not bipartisan support to do that. Still, I am going to keep making the case for more accountability and transparency.
“We need more members across the aisle to not only reject the cuts but to speak up and speak out against what this administration is already doing to defy our laws and hurt the people we represent.
“Because, as we speak now, Trump and Vought are holding up billions of dollars we have secured on a bipartisan basis. They are on course to impound billions of taxpayer dollars while agencies fail to meet basic requirements of law.
“Right now, they are illegally hiding apportionments data that would let us know whether funds we passed are being spent as intended and help us strengthen the bills we are in the middle of writing on. It is absurd we have to mark up bills—while being kept in the dark. And just this week, we learned Russ Vought—through a footnote—paused $15 billion in NIH funding.
“One footnote, from an unelected bureaucrat—overruling Congress and even NIH, to block $15 billion in funding for things like cancer research.
“That is not transparency. It is not what Congress intended. And it is not acceptable.
“We need our Republican colleagues to join us in insisting that all blocked funding gets out—not just the programs most important to them.
“So, in sum: these are critical, solid bills we are considering today that deliver vital funds for families and reject many devastating proposals.
“And of course I would have liked to do even more, and I will not stop discussing how we make that happen with my colleagues, I will be voting yes to advance both of these bills today.
“And I am glad we are on track to continue making progress on bipartisan bills that reject devastating cuts and invest in our communities and in our global strength.”
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