Senator Murray Opening Remarks at Hearing on Army Corps, Bureau of Reclamation Budgets
***WATCH: Senator Murray’s opening remarks***
Washington, D.C. — Today, during a Senate Appropriations Energy and Water Development Subcommittee hearing on the president’s fiscal year 2026 budget requests for the Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation—U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee, underscored the indispensable role each agency plays in ensuring America’s waterways are flowing, supporting our economy, and protecting the American people—and slammed President Trump’s politicization of America’s water resources and proposal to gut investments in the Corps and Bureau.
Senator Murray’s remarks, as delivered, are below:
“Thank you very much, Chair Kennedy. Good morning to all of you, Acting Assistant Secretary Forsgren, Lieutenant General Graham, and Acting Assistant Secretary Cameron—thank you all for being here today.
“We are here today to talk about the fiscal year 2026 budget requests for the Army Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation. Whether they know it or not—every American depends on the work of these agencies every day. And that is especially true for folks in my home state of Washington, and anyone who lives out West or near a major waterway.
“The Army Corps keeps our ports running smoothly, which is critical for our economy and trade. They manage critical infrastructure like our dams, levees, and bridges—and protect communities from dangerous floods. And they support our ecosystems and help protect keystone species like salmon, among a lot else. Bureau of Reclamation brings water to over 30 million people and irrigation to one-in-five farmers out West, it generates power to keep the lights on in millions of homes, and it protects farmers and communities against drought—to name a few things!
“It is critical work—work that we cannot afford to shortchange. But President Trump’s budget request shows yet again that he has no clue, and no problem gutting essential water investments our communities rely on to feed their families and stay safe from flooding. The president’s budget requests a nearly 25 percent cut for the Corps of Engineers.
“And when you consider the fact that House Republicans’ last yearlong CR already cut funding for the Corps, we are really talking about a nearly 30 percent cut for the Corps relative to the funding level just a few months ago. This request, for example, falls $1.7 billion below the target level for the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund—leaving more than half of that target funding on the table.
“Not only that, you include just $60 million for Donor and Energy ports like in my home state, when our bipartisan Water Resources Development Act has specifically instructed that there be $417 million for these ports. And President Trump’s budget also proposes a massive 30 percent cut for the Bureau of Reclamation. These cuts would end critical work on flood prevention, port dredging, basic management of our water resources, and more. This is flat-out dangerous—and Trump’s budget is dead on arrival here in Congress as far as I’m concerned.
“But we have a lot more to cover beyond the budget request. Because, as we sit here today, the President seems bent on doing everything he can to undermine the work of the Corps and the Bureau with reckless staffing cuts, and by brazenly—and corruptly—politicizing the allocation of funding and control over our nation’s water resources. In the span of just a few months, DOGE has pushed out a quarter of the Bureau’s staff without any discernible strategy. This mass exodus of talent puts the Bureau’s mission at serious risk. The last thing we need are fewer dam safety inspections or big delays on repair projects.
“And when it comes to politicization, the President spent much of his first few weeks in office making up conspiracies about California’s water supply as wildfires raged; vowing to block disaster relief, picking fights with the state’s governor, and—against the advice of all experts—ultimately ordered the Corps to open two dams and unleash billions of gallons of water on California’s central valley. That move, predictably, did absolutely nothing to stop the fires and came nowhere near LA. But it did waste huge quantities of precious water and nearly flooded—yes, flooded—local farms and communities and put agriculture at risk.
“It was one of the first instances we saw of this president meddling in the Corps’ work and overruling experts to chase some fixation, but it was not the last. A few weeks ago, the Corps released plans detailing how it is allocating funding for construction projects in FY-25. Now, usually, that is something we decide here in Congress. But that decision-making power was turned over to the Trump administration with House Republicans’ yearlong, slush-fund CR.
“That was one of the many reasons I voted against that bill, and it’s a reminder to all of us about why we need strong, bipartisan spending bills. So instead of allocating construction funding to projects that were selected in both our bipartisan Senate appropriations bill and the Republican House bill and giving funding to red and blue states roughly evenly—as both bills did—this administration decided to steal hundreds of millions of dollars in critical investments from blue states, and steer those investments instead to red states and the president’s political allies.
“Every single construction project in California—the most populous state in the country—was zeroed out. We’re talking about funds to protect people in one of the most flood-prone states in the country—gone. And Trump completely defunded construction at the Howard Hansom Dam in Washington state, leaving a literal hole in the ground! This is a shovel-ready project that will ensure water reliability for over one million people in the region. And of course, the administration’s budget proposal does not fund those projects in FY-26 either.
“All told, two-thirds of Army Corps construction funding is now headed to red states, for no reason other than Trump wanting to punish political enemies and reward his friends. This is not how these projects should work—ever—in the United States of America.
“Lieutenant General Graham, a few weeks ago the Assistant Secretary’s office was asked in a House hearing about this nakedly partisan allocation. That official didn’t even try to justify it. Instead, they said, tellingly, the buck stopped with OMB. So, there it is: Trump and Russ Vought called the final shots and defunded these projects on their own.
“Now, I shouldn’t need to tell anyone here, floods hit red states and blue states alike. Droughts hammers farmers in rural districts, and strain families in big ways. Every single American—in one way or another—depends on our ports being well-maintained to get the basic goods we count on and keep our economy humming. And everyone should be able to trust their government will decide how to invest resources and protect them from threats like flooding, drought, and wildfire based on science, based on engineering—that is, what’s best for people—not on a president’s desire for retribution.
“I believe Congress needs to reject the reckless cuts you’re requesting for the Corps and the Bureau. And we need to see an end to the egregious politicization of these resources—this is not a path we can afford to continue going down as a country.
“So, I will just give a warning to all of my colleagues, once again: It may have not been your state this time, but you all know full well just how fickle the President can be.
“Let’s not leave this authority with him. We do need to come together and write a strong bipartisan bill.”
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