Senator Murray Opening Remarks at Full Committee Mark Up of Interior-Environment and Transportation-Housing and Urban Development 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 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, and Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies appropriations acts.
Senator Murray’s opening remarks, as delivered, are below:
“Thank you very much, Chair Collins, and thank you to Senator Murkowski and Senator Merkley, our Interior subcommittee leads, and Senators Hyde-Smith and Gillibrand, our THUD subcommittee leaders, for working so hard and working together to hammer out two bipartisan bills.
“May not be the bills I would have written on my own, certainly more I would love to see us do and investments and accountability measures I’d like to see. But these bills are serious bipartisan compromises that reject many of the truly harmful cuts Trump and House Republicans are pushing for, and maintains crucial programs that help make sure folks back home have a roof over their heads; safe, reliable transportation; and clean air and water.
“In the Interior bill, we were able to put together a bill that protects public lands and national parks, invests in fighting wildfires, helps live up to our obligations to Tribes, and invests in critical work protecting our environment—and our families.
“And in the THUD bill, we were able to maintain crucial investments to address the housing crisis reject Trump’s deep cuts to rental assistance programs that make sure millions of families have a roof over their head and invest in transportation infrastructure across the board—including a much needed increase to hire more air traffic controllers.
“These are worthwhile investments—and they show just what is possible if we work together and exactly why a bipartisan process is a better path for everyone than the Trump bills House Republicans seem intent on writing—or another slush fund CR.
“Now, Russ Vought may want to break this process—and make it more partisan, he said so. He may want to set Congress on a track for a shutdown. But we, on this committee, can reject that partisan vision that hurts working families everywhere. And we can reject the painful cuts and policies they’re trying to inflict in our communities—just as these bills do.
“In fact, I think most of us here recognize that we have to reject that path.
“Because, at the end of the day—passing funding bills here in the Senate takes 60 votes.
“And that means the Trump-Vought path is choosing a dead end and a shut down.
“I won’t pretend the work ahead is going to be easy—I think every one of us knows, compromise means doing hard work, making hard choices.
“And it requires trust—something that unfortunately continues to be chipped away at. I hope that trajectory can be reversed—and I look forward to more discussion on each of the bills before us today.”
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