Senate Passes Three-Bill Funding Package in 82-15 Vote

Democrats protect funding to lower families' energy bills, key investments in scientific research, and much more

Washington, D.C. - Today, the Senate, in a 82-15 vote, passed three bicameral, bipartisan fiscal year appropriations bills: the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies; Energy and Water Development; and Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies bills. The bills now head to the president's desk to be signed into law. The House cleared the package in an overwhelming 397-28 vote last Thursday.

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"Today, we sent funding bills to the president's desk that reject the steep cuts he wanted and protect investments that families across America depend on every day," said Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and Ranking Member of the Energy and Water Development Subcommittee. "This package saves a key program to save families on their energy bills, sustains our investments in scientific research, and protects essential funding for our public lands and Tribes, among so much else. Passing these bills reasserts Congress' power of the purse and will prevent this administration from having the legal authority to decide for itself how to spend these taxpayer funds again. Democrats will keep fighting to protect investments in the American people-and I look forward to getting the rest of our bills across the finish line."

Vice Chair Murray's remarks on the package are available HERE.

A summary of the Energy and Water Development bill is available HERE. Bill text and report is available HERE.

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"Oregonians turned out in record numbers during my town halls last year and delivered a clear message: Congress must fight back against harmful funding cuts and do everything it can to protect our public lands, waters, and outdoor-driven economy. The FY 2026 Interior-Environment funding bill doesn't go as far as I'd hoped, but it takes a solid stride toward taking on wildfire and smoke threats, supporting wildland firefighters, modernizing our water infrastructure, and fulfilling our trust and treaty responsibilities to Tribes," said Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Ranking Member of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Subcommittee. "This bill also helps reassert Congress' Power of the Purse in the face of President Trump's authoritarian power grab and illegal funding cuts. The bill also rejects dozens of poison pill riders proposed by House Republicans and protects funding for operating and protecting our public lands, making it clear that Congress intends to ensure public lands stay in public hands. I look forward to this bill being signed swiftly into law to ensure communities in Oregon and across the nation have the necessary resources to tackle the greatest problems facing our environment, health, lands, air, and water."

A summary of the Interior-Environment bill is available HERE. Bill text and report is available HERE.

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"As we face a lawless Trump Administration, Congress's role in fighting for Americans' priorities is all the more important. Within this bill, we worked to invest in those priorities, reject the Administration's attempts to defund critical initiatives both in Maryland and nationally, and create new safeguards against their efforts to ignore Congressionally-mandated funds. This legislation will help boost economic opportunity and strengthen public safety in our communities," said Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Ranking Member of the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Subcommittee. "We also fought to reject the Trump Administration's attacks on science, including at NASA Goddard, NOAA, and NIST - all based in my home state of Maryland. I also worked within this bill to secure language to reassert Congress's oversight role in the new FBI headquarters and to ensure the new headquarters meets the mission and security needs of the FBI. While this bill is not perfect - including Republicans' decision to strip my amendment requiring DOJ preserve and report to Congress on the Epstein files - it rejects many Republican poison pills that would make our communities less safe, trample Americans' civil rights, restrict access to healthcare, impede important scientific research, and so much more. The investments we secured in this legislation were hard-fought, and this bill will help invest in and protect important priorities for the American people."

A summary of the Commerce-Justice-Science bill is available HERE. Bill text and report is available HERE.

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Throughout negotiations, Democrats fought to protect the programs and investments that matter most to working families across the country. Among much else, this three-bill package delivers important investments for the American people:

• FAMILIES' ENERGY COSTS: Rejects President Trump's push to eliminate the Weatherization Assistance Program that saves families an average of $372 per year on their energy bills by making energy efficiency upgrades. Instead, Democrats secured a $3 million increase in funding for the program.
  
• SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH: Rejects President Trump's efforts to slash funding for the National Science Foundation by 57%, gut funding for the Department of Energy's Office of Science by $1.1 billion, and slash NASA's science budget by 47%. Instead, the package sustains research funding for NSF, provides $160 million more for the Office of Science, which supports critical research being conducted by 22,000 researchers at our 17 national labs and over 300 universities, and provides $7.25 billion for NASA's science budget.
  
• PUBLIC LANDS & NATIONAL PARKS: Rejects President Trump's push to cut funding for the National Park Service by over $1 billion and provides the funding necessary to fully support the longstanding operations of America's public lands.
  
• FLOOD PREVENTION: Provides $10.44 billion for the Army Corps, a historic funding level, rejects President Trump's push to cut funding by $2 billion, and reasserts congressional control over which projects get funded and how much funding they receive.
  
• VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN: Provides $7 million more for grant programs administered by the Office of Violence Against Women, rejecting President Trump's efforts to cut over $200 million in funding for the office, which provides grants to communities nationwide to help survivors of domestic and dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking.
  
• ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION: Rejects President Trump's push to slash funding for the EPA-providing $4.7 billion above his request. Also rejects extreme riders that would enshrine detrimental policies in law.
  
• TRIBES: Delivers essential funding to support Tribes and our treaty obligations to them-rejecting President Trump's push to slash funding for Tribes by nearly $1 billion.
  
• REASSERTS CONGRESSIONAL CONTROL: Prevents President Trump and his cabinet secretaries from unilaterally deciding how to spend taxpayer dollars. Right now, the Trump administration has significantly more discretion to decide how to allocate federal funding thanks to Republicans' yearlong continuing resolution for fiscal year 2025, which failed to provide detailed funding directives for hundreds of programs and turned over decision-making power to the executive branch to fill in the gaps itself. This package provides detailed directives about how funds are to be spent-just as Congress has long done when writing full-year appropriations bills-so that Congress, and not the executive branch, decides how taxpayer dollars are spent.
  
• REJECTS EXTREME REPUBLICAN RIDERS: Rejects over 140 extreme riders and proposals included in House Republicans' draft bills-and many more sought by President Trump in his budget request.

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