Murray Floor Remarks on CJS, Energy & Water, Interior Funding Bills as Senate Takes Up Package

Senate advances package in 80-13 preliminary procedural vote following House passage of the package in a 397-28 vote on Thursday

Package of funding bills rejects draconian cuts and policies pushed by President Trump, House Republicans-and reasserts congressional control over key funding decisions

ICYMI : Murray, Top Appropriators Release Three-Bill Minibus

***WATCH : Senator Murray's remarks***

Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, delivered remarks on the Senate floor on the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies; Energy and Water Development; and Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies fiscal year 2026 appropriations bills as the U.S. Senate takes up the package following passage in the House last week. The Senate voted 80-13 to take up the bill in its first procedural vote on the package tonight.

Text, summaries, and more information on the three bills in the package are available HERE.

Senator Murray's remarks, as delivered, are below:

"The spending bills that we write are not just numbers on a page-they affect the daily lives of Americans across the country in very real ways. Like whether or not they can afford their electric bill, or whether families have clean drinking water at home, whether communities have the infrastructure to prevent flooding and respond to devastating weather events-like the ones we saw in my home state of Washington last month, and whether they have the resources they need to keep people safe.

"These are the issues at stake-the issues that are on my mind each year as I work to negotiate our appropriations bills. It's a responsibility I take extremely seriously-and it's why, from day one, I have vowed to rip up President Trump's budget and write a new one. Because this president, and his budget director, Project 2025 author, Russ Vought, want to slash over $160 billion dollars in essential investments for American communities and working families.

"They actually tried to cut our entire non-defense budget by over one-fifth! But even that number disguises the much deeper cuts they have pushed to key programs-in some cases, cuts House Republicans adopted in their own bills, alongside hundreds of extreme poison pill provisions.

"Democrats said: no way. Absolutely not. And we made clear that our conferenced bills had to be closer to the bipartisan Senate levels that ensured our bills cleared our Committee with overwhelming support. And throughout these negotiations, our ranking members and I have focused on protecting funding that our communities rely on, rejecting the sweeping, devastating cuts, and eliminating far-right poison pill riders.

"Now this week, the Senate is taking up the package the House cleared last week in an overwhelming vote, which contains the CJS, Energy and Water, and Interior funding bills. In each of these bills, I am very happy that we protected critical funding and fought off poison pill riders.

[CJS Bill]

"In the CJS bill, we rejected Trump's plan to slash the funding for scientific research and the National Science Foundation's budget by 57 percent, [cut] NASA's science budget in half, and devastate NOAA and climate research that all of us rely on for accurate weather forecasting-whether we know it or not!

"Trump also wanted to cut funding to prevent violence against [women] by $215 million-which was truly heartless. Democrats protected that funding-and increased it by $7 million. And we shot down Trump's proposals to merge and weaken important federal agencies like the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Office on Violence Against Women and COPS Office under the Office of Justice Programs.

[Interior-Environment Bill]

"Similarly, the Interior bill protects the Forest Service from over a billion in Trump cuts, protects clean water programs from those massive cuts, protects air and pollution grants from outright elimination, protects the pay of our federal wildland firefighters, and it rejects nearly $1 billion in Trump cuts to tribal programs for school, safety, and self-governance.

[Energy and Water Development Bill]

"As Ranking Member of Energy and Water, I worked especially hard to make sure these bills definitively rejected Trump's damaging proposals and made major investments that are absolutely critical to both my home state of Washington and our nation.

"President Trump's proposal would have raised Americans' energy bills by cutting energy and grid programs, including eliminating the weatherization assistance program - but Democrats saved them and, in fact, secured more assistance to help lower families' energy bills.

"And not only did we reject Trump's $2 billion cut to the Army Corps of Engineers, we actually increased funding-and spelled out, in line-item after line-item, exactly how the funding is to be spent. Because last year, Trump and Russ Vought blatantly defunded Army Corps construction projects in blue states like Washington and California-and steered hundreds of millions of dollars to red states instead. I called that out for what it was-a politically-motivated abuse of power that was only possible because we were operating on a slush fund, full-year CR.

"This year, we made sure that Trump and Russ Vought cannot muck around again and turn crucial flood prevention projects-like the Howard Hanson Dam in Washington state-into political hostages. I'm very proud that I was able to write in much-needed funding for the Howard Hanson Dam in this bill, alongside crucial funding for many of our nation's ports and harbors.

"The Energy and Water bill protects investments in water infrastructure, hydroelectric power, and scientific discovery-so our national labs can keep doing the cutting-edge work we all rely on. It rejects Trump's proposals to gut clean energy funding, zero out solar, wind, and hydrogen research programs, and eliminate several independent agencies that support economic development across the country.

"Now, throughout these bills, I was glad to work with Chair Collins and address indirect costs to ensure that our scientific research can continue without drastic interference and disruption.

[Extending Thanks]

"M. President, I'd like to thank some of my fellow leaders on the Appropriations Committee who came to the table, for serious, hard negotiations to put these bills together. This was not easy work-and it was done under a very challenging timeline-but we are showing what can still get done when both sides work together.

"I want to start by acknowledging and thanking Chair Collins and her staff-who have worked extraordinarily hard with my staff throughout this process, and we are continuing to work. I also want to thank House Chairman Tom Cole and Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro and all their staffs. I'd like to thank Senator Kennedy-my counterpart on the Energy and Water subcommittee, Senator Moran and Senator Van Hollen-our leaders on the CJS subcommittee, and Senator Murkowski and Senator Merkley-our Interior subcommittee leads. And of course-their counterparts in the House, Representatives Fleischmann and Kaptur on Energy and Water, Rogers and Meng on CJS, and Simpson and Pingree on Interior. Our ranking members, along with the Chairs in both the House and Senate, did a tremendous job working together to get these bills done.

[Reasserting Congress' Power of the Purse]

"These bills reassert Congress' power over key spending decisions, and that could not be more important. These bills will put an end to some of the truly unacceptable, and partisan, retaliation we've seen from the Office of Management and Budget by telling this administration exactly how Congress has decided funding must get spent.

"That is a huge improvement from the status quo we have with Republicans' yearlong slush fund CR that gave Trump and Vought way more power to decide how to spend our taxpayer dollars and which projects and priorities to fund. Over the last year, we have seen them abuse the power that terrible slush fund CR gave them to rob our communities and completely remake federal spending priorities without so much as talking to Congress.

"That is why, right now, it is so important that we end that slush fund authority and reassert our power as lawmakers by passing these full-year spending bills that specify exactly how funds are to be spent just as we had always done until last year.

[Importance of Passing Bills]

"So, with the next funding deadline coming up, it is crucial that we pass our bills, protect the funding families count on, reject Trump's heartless cuts, and put power back in the hands of the American people and their elected representatives, where it belongs. That is what this package does-and what I am intent on doing with the rest of our bills as well.

"My north star is always: what can I do that does the most for folks back home in Washington state? How can I protect the programs that hardworking people count on? How can I deliver real wins that make families' lives better?

"So, to all of my colleagues, who share my outrage at how Trump has trampled over our spending laws and my grave concern over his damaging cuts and absurd, harmful budget proposals, I will continue to join you in pushing back against his agenda on the Senate floor.

"These are not the bills we'd have written on our own-I know that. They are not the bills I'd write on my own. But they do mark a significant improvement over the status quo-where Trump and his agency heads can rewrite parts of the budget without Congress, and they are vastly better than the Trump budget plan-which was full of horrific cuts and extreme policies. So, I will continue to work with my colleagues to make sure programs that protect our communities and save families money don't get axed.

"Passing funding bills that we shape and write is one of the most important ways we wield our power and make the voice of our constituents heard. It is one of the most fundamental jobs of Congress-to write these bills to decide how our taxpayer funds get spent.

"So, I urge my colleagues to join me this week in voting to pass this next package of bills and reassert our power. So that we can put forward and pass into law bills that aren't only bipartisan, but that make sure our constituents come first.

"In fact, just yesterday we put out a bipartisan package for our SFOPS and FSGG funding bills. It is a package that, once again, saves crucial investments in our communities, and our small businesses, and America's global leadership. I'll have more to say on that soon."

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