In remarks on the Senate floor Friday, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) spoke about the dangers of the continuing resolution.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Thank you, Madam President, and I ask unanimous consent to complete my remarks before the vote.
00:05Without objection.
00:08Madam President, I have made no secret of my opposition to this bill.
00:15For weeks, I have been warning about the real dangers of a year-long CR
00:20like the one that has come before us from the House Republicans.
00:24But before I talk about those dangers and why I will be voting no on cloture
00:30and on final passage, I want my colleagues to hear what I have to say.
00:36But I do hope that they join me in voting no.
00:40I want to talk for a moment about how we did get here.
00:43Because I fear some members of Republican leadership may need a history lesson.
00:50The fact of the matter is, the only reason we are staring down a shutdown
00:55deadline halfway into this fiscal year is because the House Republicans
01:01decided to kick the can down the road with a major punt,
01:05and because they have repeatedly walked away from the table.
01:09This is just the historical record.
01:12We were all here for it.
01:13We saw what happened.
01:15Perhaps it's worth ticking through it once more.
01:18I'll admit it can get easy to lose track of all that has happened over the last few months,
01:23and just how many times House Republicans made a deal just to break it in recent years.
01:29So I want to give a refresher.
01:31It's been a while since my time as a preschool teacher, but I guess school's back in session.
01:37Because I'm not going to let anyone get away with ignoring
01:41how Republicans forced us to the edge of a shutdown today.
01:46Remember, last year, after a bruising FY24 process in which House Republicans
01:52made one ridiculous demand after the next and caused one delay after the other,
01:57as Appropriations Chair, I worked hard alongside my colleagues, including Senator Collins who's
02:04here today, within our committee to write and pass serious bipartisan spending bills
02:11for this current fiscal year.
02:13It was no easy feat.
02:14We had less resources at our disposal to make use of, and we had even more challenges to address.
02:21But we managed to work together, Senator Collins and I and our committee members,
02:26and we cleared all but one of our bills.
02:30Overwhelmingly in committee.
02:32And many of those bills cleared on unanimous votes.
02:36Then come November, after the election,
02:39I was pushing very hard to get our funding bills done and wrapped up by the end of the year.
02:45My Democratic colleagues and even many of my Republican colleagues wanted to get that done.
02:51But Speaker Johnson and Trump chose to kick the can down the road.
02:56They chose to.
02:57Trump reportedly wanted to make sure his fingerprints were on our spending bills for this fiscal year.
03:03And the Speaker not only wanted to, of course, please Trump,
03:07he was worried about how a messy funding fight might complicate his path to becoming Speaker again.
03:13So the decision was made, and Speaker Johnson punted from December to March.
03:20Then we negotiated a bipartisan CR to fund the government through March 14th today.
03:26Along with that, we passed a disaster relief and we extended critical laws.
03:31And we reached a bipartisan, bicameral deal.
03:36And then House Republicans walked away and blew that deal up at the last minute.
03:41Why?
03:42I'll tell you.
03:43The richest man in the world sent a bunch of completely inaccurate tweets.
03:47And instead of saying, you know what, actually, Elon, you have no clue what you're talking about.
03:52These are programs that help my constituents.
03:55House Republicans said, let's put this guy in charge.
03:59They killed that bipartisan agreement, rolled out an altogether different bill not long thereafter,
04:06and punted on government funding.
04:09That is what happened.
04:10And that is essentially what they have been doing ever since.
04:14Cheering and clapping as Trump and Elon got basic facts wrong, broke laws,
04:20blocked funding that our communities needed, dismantled entire agencies, fired veterans,
04:28shuttered our Social Security offices, and break government to enrich themselves.
04:33And while Trump and Republican leadership were fixating on whether they pass one bill or two
04:38for their plan to cut health care for kids, to pass more tax cuts for billionaires,
04:42a fast-approaching deadline was on its way to us.
04:46One that's here now.
04:48For the next several months, Madam President, I have remained at the table,
04:52ready to negotiate funding bills.
04:54My Democratic counterpart in the House, Rosa DeLauro and I, never left the table.
04:59Not once.
05:00We made an offer after an offer, as did our Republican counterparts.
05:05My top priority has been, and continues to be,
05:08doing what we do, what we do every year, every year,
05:13which is passing full-year funding bills with the detailed directives
05:18that we include in our spending laws every year.
05:23I have wanted to make sure we continue to provide those,
05:26and make sure that our constituents' voices are heard.
05:30They're heard in federal funding, which, I have to say, this CR fails to do.
05:37Instead of working with us in good faith to fund the government in a bipartisan way,
05:41Speaker Johnson and Republican leadership walked away and started working on a Republican funding
05:47bill without an ounce, not an ounce, of Democratic input.
05:52I remained at the table.
05:54My counterparts on Appropriations and I continued to talk to keep the ball rolling.
05:59But by the end of last week, for all intents and purposes,
06:02we had an agreement on top-line funding.
06:05But the call had been made.
06:07The call had already been made.
06:09Johnson was in on it.
06:10Trump was in on it.
06:12Russ Vought was in on it.
06:14And Johnson decided instead of talking with Democrats,
06:17it would be easier to have Trump get on the phone
06:20and scream and bully House Republicans into submission.
06:24He figured if outright intimidation from Trump was enough to convince every Republican
06:30to vote for a budget resolution that will cut Medicaid for seniors and kids,
06:35then it might also be enough for them to pass a Republican CR,
06:40especially if Trump threatened dissenters with political retribution, which, of course, he did.
06:46And that is the bill they rolled out on Saturday and passed earlier this week.
06:52Now, as I have laid out in depth, the year-long CR House Republicans sent our way
06:57hands a blank check to Elon Musk and Donald Trump to decide how our constituents'
07:06taxpayer dollars get spent, all while cutting the funding working people count on each and every day.
07:14It is anything but a, quote, clean CR.
07:19What Republicans are pushing here is not a continuing resolution.
07:23In this case, CR stands for complete resignation.
07:29Because what Republicans are doing here is ceding more discretion to two billionaires
07:35to decide what does and does not get funded in their states.
07:40It is a power-grab CR.
07:43But not only that, it does make serious cuts to domestic funding.
07:47It leaves our working families in the dust.
07:50We are talking about a nearly 50 percent cut to lifesaving medical research
07:57into conditions affecting our service members.
08:01It is a giant shortfall in funding for NIH.
08:06It is a massive cut in funding for Army Corps projects,
08:10and $15 billion less for our domestic priorities.
08:16Madam President, this bill will force Social Security to cut staff and close offices,
08:22and make it harder for our seniors to get the benefits they spent their
08:26careers paying into the system to earn.
08:29It creates a devastating shortfall that risks tens of thousands of Americans losing their housing.
08:36So this bill causes real pain for communities across the country.
08:42And let me be clear, this bill empowers Trump and Musk to pick winners and losers.
08:50And I guarantee you they will not only go after Democrats.
08:54Inexplicably, House Republicans are saying,
08:57give Trump all this power or we'll shut down government.
09:02Well, let's be very clear, that is and always has been a false choice.
09:08The reality is there were other options House Republicans could have chosen.
09:12But they chose to pull out of bipartisan negotiations
09:17and send a deeply partisan bill here to the Senate today.
09:23Democrats did not have an ounce of input into writing this bill.
09:29And now House Republicans expect us to support it?
09:32That makes zero sense.
09:34Let me be clear, in my time in Congress,
09:37never, ever has one party written partisan full year appropriations bills for all of government
09:45and expected the other party to go along without any input.
09:50To my colleagues here who want to pass individual appropriations bills
09:55in a timely manner for next fiscal year,
09:58how are Democrats supposed to trust that they will be talking to us in good faith negotiations?
10:06After we did the hard work of negotiating overwhelmingly bipartisan appropriations
10:12bills last year, only for us to see this today from Republicans in the House.
10:17Only for Republicans to now say, swallow this partisan House Republican CR
10:23or it will be Democrats that are shutting down the government.
10:25Madam President, that is a false choice and one we cannot accept going forward.
10:31When I cast my vote today, I am representing nearly 8 million people in Washington state.
10:38And in this democracy, their voices count for something.
10:44So you better believe I am not handing over my vote in exchange for nothing.
10:50The choice is not a government shutdown or passing a bill to write a blank check to Elon Musk.
10:56It is not. That is not how this works.
10:59On Monday, I rolled out a clean four-week extension to prevent a shutdown
11:04and to keep government funded while giving us the time to hammer out a bipartisan agreement.
11:11We could still pass that right here, right now.
11:14If any member has any suggestions on what they want to see in the CR, I am all ears.
11:21Now, House Republicans may have already left town,
11:24but I'm pretty sure they know how to get on a plane.
11:27That's their job. Show up and vote.
11:31The bottom line is, this bill will mean more pain and chaos for our country.
11:37I cannot support it.
11:40And please let's remember, Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the White House.
11:46If you refuse to put forward an offer that includes
11:50any Democratic input, you don't get Democratic votes.
11:53That's on Republicans.
11:55If you don't get any input from Democrats, it's a Republican vote.
12:00A shutdown is on Republicans.
12:02The American people rightly understand that Republicans have pushed this country towards
12:07a shutdown.
12:08They do understand that Donald Trump has created a massive economic uncertainty
12:14and is putting us on track for a Republican recession.
12:18With his indiscriminate layoffs, his illegal funding freeze,
12:23his incoherent trade war, and now by threatening a Republican shutdown.
12:29Democrats did not write this bill.
12:31We did not have any input.
12:33But if we had, we sure wouldn't have handed over more of our power to two billionaires.
12:39You can bet we would not have cut our domestic investments by billions.
12:44Democrats did not write this bill.
12:46But if we did, we would have protected our public schools.
12:50Democrats did not write this bill.
12:52But if we did, we would have put our veterans first.
12:55And you can bet we would not have prevented the District of Columbia
13:01from spending its own taxpayer dollars and be forced to lay off police and teachers.
13:08Democrats did not have any say on this bill.
13:12But if we did, we would have protected our public lands
13:16and your health care and life-saving cancer research.
13:19So I hope my Democratic and yes, my Republican colleagues as well
13:24will join me on voting no on this bill and swiftly passing a four-week extension
13:30so we can hammer out a better, bipartisan solution.
13:36I am voting no because my constituents should have a say
13:39in how their tax dollars are spent.
13:42I am voting no because Congress, Congress, each one of us,
13:47not Elon Musk, should decide which schools or which hospitals get funding.
13:54I'm voting no and I hope my colleagues will join me.
13:58And before I close, Madam President, I want to say to my constituents
14:03who are frightened and scared, I understand your fears.
14:09Some days I share them.
14:11But your voice matters.
14:13Speaking out matters.
14:16You elected me to be your voice and you better believe I will keep fighting for you.
14:21So shoulders up.
14:23Keep the faith.
14:25We stand strong, but we do not stand down.
14:29We're going to keep fighting for the America we love.
14:32Thank you, Madam President.
14:33I yield the floor.