During remarks on the Senate floor Thursday, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) spoke about President Trump's freezing of congressionally approved funding.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Thank You Mr. President. Mr. President, right now we have a couple of
00:04billionaires running our country straight into the ground who seem to
00:09have skipped American history because President Trump and Elon Musk don't seem
00:15to care much about our Constitution including the part that says quite
00:20clearly and I quote the Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes
00:27duties imposts and excises to pay the debts and provide for the common defense
00:33and general welfare of the United States and it continues and I quote no money
00:39shall be drawn from the Treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by
00:45law well Mr. President their lack of interest in that section of the
00:51Constitution doesn't make it any less real at all you don't have to take my
00:58word for it it's right down the street at the National Archives you can go read
01:01it yourself I would invite our billionaire co-presidents to go take a
01:06look stand in line with the schools school kids who are in trips or read up
01:12on the separation of powers and you can even explain to the students there why
01:17you are gutting the Department of Education while you're at it and just in
01:21case Trump and Musk struggle as much with reading comprehension as history
01:25let me translate for you what the Constitution says Congress that is us
01:33everyone elected here has the power of the purse presidents don't write laws
01:39they execute them that has been true for every spending bill this body has ever
01:47passed including the House Republicans year-long CR and the basic fact that
01:53Congress has the power of the purse is something Republicans and Democrats
01:59agree on and it won't change no matter what Trump or rust vote or Elon Musk
02:05claim their legal theories are plain outlandish and so are their facts if you
02:12listen to them they argue that presidents have been impounding funds
02:17routinely that's wrong the opposite is true presidents have traditionally
02:24followed the law and followed the legal directives in spending bills and when
02:30Nixon tried to block just a fraction of the amount of funding Trump is now
02:35blocking Congress passed the Impoundment Control Act on a truly
02:41overwhelming bipartisan basis in fact it cleared this Senate unanimously so while
02:48the Constitution may be the first word on Congress's power of the purse this
02:53foundational principle has been affirmed time and again by the courts and by
02:59Congress the law affirms what we have long known presidents cannot pick and
03:06choose which parts of the spending laws to follow and it lays out a clear
03:12procedure for the president to propose to Congress either delaying or rescinding
03:17funding the Impoundment Control Act is still the law of the land the
03:23Constitution is still the foundation of this democracy Congress still has the
03:30power of the purse and for some of the House Republicans who seem to have
03:35forgotten that power is a critical part of how all of us how we fight for our
03:41constituents as lawmakers we allocate funding to solve problems to make lives
03:47better to make our country safer things like new bridges to safely get to work
03:52or affordable health care or child care clean drinking water a strong national
03:58defense personnel who keep planes flying safely overhead and keep toxins out of
04:03our food supply and and so much more and when Congress passes legislation to make
04:09all of those priorities real and the president signs it into law it needs to
04:16be followed that is how it works in this democracy don't like the law come to win
04:22the votes in Congress change it but I'm here today on the floor because we all
04:27know too well this president is not doing that he and the richest man in the
04:33world are defying our laws they are hurting our constituents and they're
04:39seeking to enrich themselves in that process for over two months now
04:44President Trump has been illegally choking off huge chunks of funding we
04:51are talking about hundreds of billions of dollars holding up investments in
04:56everything from new roads and bridges to cheaper energy to stronger national
05:02security back in my home state of Washington the reports keep rolling in
05:06about how President Trump is causing havoc by illegally blocking funds last
05:13week I heard from a lumber company who are struggling to cover a loan given its
05:18federal grant for solar power has now been frozen for months earlier this week
05:24my office heard about a terminated Spokane project focused on
05:28environmental restoration stormwater management and millions of dollars being
05:33canceled for tribal public health efforts in my state alone I have no
05:38doubt the fallout will continue next week because Trump keeps freezing more
05:43funding ripping up more contracts and ignoring our laws it has to end all of
05:50us every one of us wants a better working more efficient government that
05:55delivers for people but what Trump and Musk are doing has nothing to do with
06:00the efficiency or with helping people they are breaking the law and ripping
06:06the rug out from underneath families and American businesses all while working
06:11overtime to pass more tax breaks for billionaires like themselves this
06:17lawlessness has to end now I am hopeful in this chamber we get back to
06:24regular order and pass actual bipartisan full-year bills we cannot let what
06:30happened with House Republicans awful CR happen ever again we've got to ensure
06:36that our constituents our constituents each and every one of us have their
06:40voices heard by getting a full year spending bill reflecting current needs
06:45and get it across the finish line and those bills need to be bipartisan that's
06:49the bare minimum and it is not too much to ask I have worked with Republicans
06:54for years for years on bipartisan spending bills during my time as
06:59Appropriations Chair I worked with Senator Collins from the other side of
07:03the aisle and our colleagues on the committee on both sides of the aisle to
07:07hammer out strong bipartisan bills two years in a row bills that passed out of
07:12our committee in overwhelming bipartisan votes many of them unanimously so I know
07:19well it is absolutely possible to work together and it is worthwhile is it easy
07:26of course not but you look at the bills we wrote together and you look at the
07:30disaster of a bill that House Republicans wrote all on their own and
07:34the difference is night and day and I'm not just talking about the difference in
07:39huge painful cuts from the House Republican bill I'm also talking about
07:44the huge incompetence House Republicans displayed they wrote a bill that slashed
07:50DC's own budget by a billion dollars for no reason the Senate has now passed a
07:58bill to fix the inexcusable cut to DC's own funds their own funds but if the
08:05House does not act quickly now to pass the Senate bill and fix that mistake
08:09House Republicans will force DC to fire teachers to fire police officers and
08:15more by the way without saving taxpayers a dime and that's just one one of the
08:22many glaring issues with the House Republicans partisan CR which I spoke
08:26about at length when I cast my vote against it and I stand proudly by that
08:33vote today Republicans should not write a bill without me and expect me just to
08:39vote for it that's not how this ever works we should not accept a false
08:45choice of accepting House Republicans poison pills or facing a shutdown
08:49otherwise that poison is only going to get more bitter each time the choice we
08:56have to talk about instead is this will we work together in a bipartisan way to
09:03fund the government and invest in the places that we represent or will House
09:10Republicans cut us out go on their own and cause a shutdown we have to start
09:18looking ahead to fiscal year 2026 and working on those bipartisan funding
09:23bills I am focused on making sure that what happened earlier this month
09:27absolutely does not happen again because let me be absolutely clear if
09:32Republicans draft another funding bill in September with zero Democratic input
09:39and that bill fails to pass the Senate because Democrats do not vote for it
09:44that is on Republicans that is Republicans forcing a shutdown period I
09:50represent nearly 8 million people in the state of Washington I'm not offering up
09:55my vote in exchange for nothing and actually in the case of House
09:59Republicans see are worse than nothing given how it will now be used against
10:04Democrats so I'm absolutely not going to stop making this point Democrats should
10:09not offer up our votes in exchange for exactly nothing I will be making that
10:16argument loud and clear for everyone to hear we need to be focused on
10:20negotiating bipartisan bills that give our communities strong investments
10:25instead of devastating cuts we need to ensure ensure that our constituents have
10:30a voice in this process colleagues understand this passing full year
10:36bipartisan spending bills that is my top priority those spending bills that carry
10:41the full authority of Congress on how we spend taxpayer dollars that carry forward
10:47the priorities our constituents tell us about that is my top priority that is
10:53the most important guardrail we can place on an administration that looks to
10:58punish people they disagree with and strip funding from priorities like army
11:03court dam repairs or public transportation projects or from public
11:08schools and universities now as we write those bills we need transparency we need
11:14to understand the reality on the ground of what this administration and DOJ are
11:18actually doing who is calling the shots over there what programs are functional
11:24at this point where do we have enough staff to even carry out the mission of
11:29specific agencies or to faithfully follow congressional intent we need a
11:34hearing with Elon Musk and whoever else is running DOJ we need a here hearings
11:39with department heads whatever form it takes we need answers on what has been
11:44going on we need an end to the lawlessness that is happening and we
11:50need transparency that is sorely lacking I don't know when that became
11:55controversial isn't DOJ supposed to be all about accountability isn't it
12:01supposed to be all about transparency so let's get to it let's show the American
12:06people exactly what Trump is doing what is the problem with that after all it's
12:13not like it's meant to be a secret project 2025 was a public playbook and
12:19it's clear they are following it to the letter before he returned as OMB
12:24director Russ Vogt made clear he wanted to ignore our laws and quote impound
12:30baby impound that is a direct quote quote from the General Counsel by the
12:35way he said it impound baby impound I even asked him about it directly will
12:41you follow our laws or just toss them out in the dumpster and he wouldn't give
12:47us a straight yes he wouldn't why because he already laid out his plans in
12:51black and white his plan break the law block funds that Congress passed dare the
12:57courts to stop him and shocker the guy who made it clear he is willing to go
13:02break laws and block funding is breaking laws and he is blocking funding and
13:07President Trump and Musk have made their intentions just as clear not just
13:12ignoring our laws but ignoring court orders to uphold our laws and attacking
13:17our judges in our judicial system every time they don't get their way just this
13:23week we saw new blatantly illegal acts from the Trump administration first OMB
13:30removed a website that provides transparency by displaying how it
13:36directs agencies to apportion or spend federal funding mr. president that
13:41website is not optional it's in statute and OMB was complying with the
13:47requirement that was passed by us by Congress this is a cut-and-dry case
13:53OMB must publish the agency's legally binding budget decisions we pass that
14:01language on a bipartisan basis because our constituents deserve transparency
14:07and they deserve accountability for how their money is being spent but the only
14:14thing transparent about this administration is how transparently
14:18transparently illegal their actions are because the same day they illegally shut
14:24down and shut out the American people out of seeing what they're doing they
14:29also blocked funding that House Republicans continued in their own CR
14:34and that the president himself actually just signed into law Trump wants to
14:39illegally cherry-pick what gets funding that we passed and what gets left in the
14:44dust well for rent one for one thing that is straight up against the law open
14:49and shut case for another it fundamentally erodes our democracy the
14:54trust that people and businesses and local and state governments across the
14:59country place in the federal government and of course our ability to negotiate
15:05bipartisan deals here in Congress and let's not lose sight of the fact that it
15:10is bad for our country and it is bad for our constituents there is a reason we
15:15passed the emergency funds but President Trump is choking off critical
15:21investments to combat the flow of fentanyl he is slashing support for US
15:27national security initiatives he is weakening the competitiveness of US
15:33business he is setting backs next generation weather forecasting and more
15:38and that it still is not all because the very next day we learned he wants to
15:44illegally freeze tens of millions of dollars in title 10 funding that is a
15:49program with a long bipartisan history that helps women get cancer screenings
15:57get birth control pregnancy tests prevent and treat STIs last time
16:02President Trump tried to do that through rulemaking but now that he is thrown law
16:07out the window entirely he thinks he can do it with a stroke of a pen and I have
16:11to underscore these are just the most recent examples everything I just talked
16:17about happened just this week this is the latest in a long trail of
16:21devastation they have left behind in this ongoing parade of law break law
16:25breaking because as I mentioned President Trump is still is still
16:30blocking hundreds of billions of dollars in investments we secured for
16:36our constituents President Trump and Musk illegally shuttered USAID they are
16:41illegally gutting the Department of Education they are trying to dramatically
16:46slash medical research funding with restrictions that are in direct defiance
16:52of bipartisan language that I actually work to negotiate with my Republican
16:56colleagues I could go on all day describing the damage caused by these
17:00moves and the many other funds that are now illegally being blocked but I think
17:06the pattern is clear they said they were going to cut funding regardless of the
17:11consequences regardless of the laws regardless of the Constitution and that
17:16is exactly what they're doing well Mr. President we here in Congress can't bury
17:22our heads in the sand while Trump Musk and vote try to snatch away our power
17:26our power Democrats and Republicans of the purse I will continue to use every
17:31tool I have as a senator I will use my voice I will use my vote and more to
17:36stop this lawlessness to stop the cuts that hurt my constituents and to write
17:41and pass bills that actually help people so Mr. President I really hope our
17:46Republican colleagues will work with us to craft bipartisan funding bills and to
17:52conduct basic oversight to provide accountability because it absolutely
17:58matters that we not just pass strong bipartisan funding laws but that the
18:04laws we pass are actually followed that our constituents every one of our
18:09constituents actually have a say in how their tax dollars are spent and that
18:15Congress maintains the power of the purse and I will keep continuing to
18:20press all of my colleagues to stand with me on this thank you Mr. President I
18:24yield the floor and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
18:29Ms. Osterbrooks