-9999

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, we are nearly done with our fiscal year 2026 spending bills. It has been a long road--no question--and we still have some serious disagreements around reforms and funding for ICE and Border Patrol, which I will speak to in a minute, but despite the major challenges, we accomplished something important in passing 11 and, hopefully soon, 12 of our funding bills.

We outright rejected Trump's plan to gut the programs families rely on. We protected crucial investments that people count on every day, and we took some important steps to reassert Congress' power of the purse. That matters immensely. We would almost be there on the Homeland appropriations bill if it were not for Speaker Johnson. Despite the Senate unanimously passing a bill--twice, in fact--to fund the parts of DHS we can agree on while continuing to work on the areas of disagreement when it comes to ICE and Border Patrol, Speaker Johnson and the House Republicans have refused to put the bill up for a vote. They have chosen to needlessly extend the DHS shutdown, making it the longest shutdown in history. House Republicans need to stop holding disaster relief hostage and put that bill up for a vote. We know it will pass overwhelmingly.

I also want to step back for a moment because we cannot lose sight of the fact that the reason we find ourselves in this mess is that, last summer, in their ``Big Ugly Bill,'' Republicans did an end run around the bipartisan appropriations process and handed ICE and Border Patrol vastly more money than they receive each year. They gave ICE $75 billion, the CBP $65 billion, and even more funding on top of that for the Secretary to tap however they would like. All told, Republicans signed off on over $160 billion in funding for Trump's mass deportation campaign at DHS. That is nearly three times the entire Department's annual budget, and they did so with virtually no guardrails.

We all know what happened next. President Trump and Stephen Miller built ICE and Border Patrol up into untrained paramilitary forces and sent them out to terrorize communities across the country. American citizens were wrongfully detained. Peaceful protesters were teargassed, tackled to the ground, and pepper-sprayed for no reason. Windows and doors were smashed in by masked agents with no warrants and no IDs. Of course, American citizens like Renee Good and Alex Pretti were shot by Federal agents and slandered by the Trump administration.

Democrats made clear there has to be reform, and we will not approve more funding for their Agencies until that happens; but after weeks of very tough negotiations, Republicans ultimately refused to agree on some very basic reforms, including reforms that the White House had, by the way, already agreed to. Now, while they continue refusing those commonsense reforms, Republicans are, once again, vowing to give ICE and the Border Patrol even more money, without any accountability. That is right. After America spoke out, demanding more accountability, Republicans are actually doing less accountability.

From what I am hearing, they are looking to now approve funding for ICE and Border Patrol for the rest of Trump's term, with none of the accountability measures we regularly include in our annual spending bills. By pursuing this path, they are intentionally walking away from the reforms that we were negotiating over, and on top of that, they will not include longstanding legacy guardrails that have been bipartisan when it comes to DHS funding.

So let's be crystal clear about what that means: Republicans are now choosing to cut another blank check for these Agencies and to forfeit Congress' ability to put checks on them for the next 3 years.

If Republicans want to cut Stephen Miller another blank check to terrorize American cities and communities, Democrats will have no part of it, and we will fight them every step of the way. But if they are ready to get serious about reforms--and ICE needs a heck of a lot more than another money bomb--Democrats are at the table, ready to rein in those rogue Agencies.

This week, now that President Trump has finally submitted his fiscal year 2027 budget request, which he did over the recess, we are kicking off the fiscal year 2027 appropriations process in earnest with hearings in the Appropriations Committee.

Now, a budget is a statement of values, and what this budget says about our President's values is bleak. Trump's vision for our future is not better schools for our kids; it is not curing diseases like cancer or Alzheimer's; and it is not lowering costs for families, like childcare or home energy bills. It is war--war--plain and simple.

None of the priorities Trump campaigned on are reflected in this budget. He is breaking every single promise he made about lowering costs and helping families and putting America first. Instead of putting America first, he is asking Congress to slash investments in families to help fund his reckless foreign wars and line the pockets of defense company CEOs and their stockholders.

He summed it up pretty well when he said recently:

We're fighting wars. We can't take care of day care.

That was him. It doesn't get more explicit or more wrong than that. Trump is saying we can't afford to help families afford the basics because we have to fight wars that he chose to start.

We also have Trump admitting in an interview that gas prices may be higher in a few months because of his latest war. But for my Republican colleagues who can't bring themselves to watch Trump's interviews or read his posts, don't worry because Trump's budget is sending the same pro-war, anti-family message just with more numbers and fewer typos, fewer unhinged tangents attacking the Pope, and no AI photos depicting Trump as Jesus.

Now, I assure you the values in this budget are just as morally bankrupt because Trump wants to defund programs that lower people's costs while increasing war spending by half a trillion dollars.

All told, he wants a $1\1/2\ trillion defense budget. That is a trillion--that has 12 zeros. And there seems to be no rhyme or reason for that number, except that Trump liked the sound of it, woke up one day and announced on Truth Social he would seek $1\1/2\ trillion for defense.

It is really hard to put that number into perspective, but I am going to try because the tradeoffs could not be more stark. Instead of spending half a trillion dollars more on war, we could easily extend the healthcare tax credits that Republicans let expire for many years to come. We could afford millions of affordable new homes or help millions of Americans afford quality childcare or just about end homelessness or make sure that no kid in this country goes hungry. We could develop new cures and treatments for devastating diseases or cut families' energy bills in half or help students actually afford to go to college.

Seriously, half a trillion dollars more for war is such a mind- boggling amount that White House aides scrambled to even produce a request to meet Trump's number. There is no world in which the Pentagon can spend that kind of increase responsibly.

But blowing up the war budget and blowing up the debt is only half the story with Trump's absurd budget. Because while Trump's budget has plenty of cash for warmongering, while he is more than happy to shovel your tax dollars at defense contractors, Trump wants to cut funding for our schools. He wants to cut funding for medical research. He wants to cut funding for affordable housing programs and a whole lot more.

Truly, the only thing that might be more breathtaking than the amount of money Trump wants to spend on warmongering abroad is the amount of damage he wants to do with those cuts here at home. There are entire programs that do real good for families across this country that Trump wants to turn into dust. A few examples: Trump wants to eliminate programs that help families pay their energy bills, which Trump has already sent skyrocketing with his tariffs and clean energy cuts and now this war. Just last month, the price of home heating oil increased by 30 percent--30 percent.

Trump wants to eliminate nutrition assistance for our seniors, not even a year after Republicans made the largest SNAP cuts in history.

Trump wants to eliminate title X programs, cutting off access to family planning, preventive care, at the same time the Republican healthcare hike just pushed millions of people off their health insurance and extreme abortion bans that are putting women's lives in danger.

Trump wants to eliminate housing supply programs, even as he wrecks the economy, sends inflation higher, and puts home ownership even farther out of reach.

He also wants to eliminate roughly 30 K-12 programs, totaling over $6 billion in funding, including support for our homeless students and our afterschool programs, not to mention another 30 DOJ programs that help keep our communities safe.

You know, I could go on all day. And beyond the programs Trump wants to zero out completely, there are many others he just wants to cut down to the bone. He wants to cut NIH by $5.75 billion. He wants to cut CDC by a third, and cut funding for mental health and rural health and maternal health even more.

Think about that. Trump wants to slash funding to fight against disease so he can bankroll his war against Iran that no one asked for.

At the same time, Trump wants a recordbreaking, budget busting half a trillion dollar increase for war. He wants to cut COPS grants by a quarter; that will make our communities less safe. He wants to cut our national parks by a third; that would eliminate 2,500 positions and put our national treasures at risk. He wants to slash EPA in half; that would let polluters run amok and put our families in danger.

He wants to cut the Small Business Administration by two-thirds, as if he hasn't already done enough damage to the economy.

Or when it comes to NASA. The world was just captivated by the Artemis mission, sending humans further from Earth than ever before and preparing to return to the moon for the first time in this century. Most of us in this country watched that mission, and we were awestruck. We watched and said: Wow. This country can still inspire the world. We can still reach for the stars.

Well, Trump watched that mission, and he said: Whatever. Let's cut NASA by a quarter.

Not to mention the other cuts to science, slashing the National Science Foundation in half. So we just let China continue to win when it comes to science and technology.

Trump also wants to cut funding for Amtrak and for transit projects across the country. He wants to cut funding to address violence against women. He wants to slash WIC benefits that help our moms and kids get healthy food. He wants to practically eliminate Federal funding for drinking water and sewer infrastructure, even as those old sewage pipes in DC nearly put our Nation's Capitol at risk.

Not to mention he wants to rob States like mine of funding for critical projects. He is, once again, zeroing out funding for Howard Hanson Dam, and he is trying to shortchange the Hanford cleanup. And, once again, I will not stand for that.

I cannot drive home enough how backward all of this is. Trump's budget has zero dollars--zero--to increase childcare funding, but, again, he has got a half trillion dollars more to increase war spending--not because we actually need that much to keep our country safe; because Trump apparently likes starting wars and threatening to end civilizations. He likes sending our sons and daughters into Venezuela and Iran and who knows where next without any sort of plan or any regard for the consequences, like those skyrocketing gas prices.

This is not what Trump campaigned on, and it is not what anyone wants. And as long as I am on the Appropriations Committee, you can be darn sure it is not what we are going to be doing in our annual funding bills.

Trump's budget request to blow half a trillion on wars across the world while cutting programs here at home belongs in the trash, and that is exactly where I intend to send it.

But as we look ahead to fiscal year 2027, we are staring down some major challenges. In many respects, even bigger challenges than we have faced in the past year. Because while Trump pushes this half a trillion dollar war spending bonanza, the reality is that for 3 successive years now, our domestic budget has essentially remained flat, and that is in nominal terms. For 3 years in a row, Republicans have squeezed nondefense programs as much as possible while pushing for higher defense spending.

Democrats have fought off countless cuts pitched by Trump and House Republicans. But the fact of the matter is, when Republicans hold these programs roughly flat for 3 years and inflation--not to mention tariffs and chaos--keep raising costs, that is effectively a cut.

Over the last few years, we have turned over just about every couch cushion we can find to prevent the cuts to childcare or cancer research, but there is only so many cushions in that couch; and we will need significantly more funding for nondefense to simply tread water this year.

For example, the Pell Program is facing a $17 billion shortfall. If we don't address that, students are going to pay the price.

Medical care for our veterans will cost many billions more. If we don't have more nondefense funding, we will either shortchange veterans or have to cut other programs that families rely on.

Housing costs, as we all know, continue to rise; and we will need more funding just to tread water and keep serving the Americans who count on rental assistance.

And it is the same story for WIC and many other important programs that people count on.

And then there is the massive infrastructure cliff we are about to barrel over because the bipartisan infrastructure law that we passed about 5 years ago included tens of billions of dollars each year for key nondefense programs. Those programs and funds have supplemented our annual appropriations in an absolutely critical way. Those funds run out in September. We are talking about resources to repair our roads and bridges, expand public transit, lower energy costs, create jobs, and invest in communities across this country--all gone in the blink of an eye.

You know how many pages Trump spends planning to address that in his budget? Zero. None. That is unacceptable, and we cannot fail to address this infrastructure cliff and increase domestic investments that help families and put our communities first.

And as we know, meanwhile, inflation is squeezing families across the board. Electric bills are going up. Tariffs have sent grocery prices higher and higher. Childcare is expensive, hard to find, and healthcare premiums are skyrocketing.

In the face of all of that, we have to put more resources into helping people out, not funding Trump's wars abroad. Do Republicans really want to give Trump's warmongering a blank check while giving families the short end of the stick? Because that is the basic pitch that Trump has made.

The problem with Trump's budget are many, but it does boil down to this: Trump would rob our families to pay for war while still burdening our grandkids with mountains of debt. And for what? To make defense contractors rich? To buy more bombs that Trump can threaten to end civilization with?

We should be building bridges here in America, not destroying them in Iran. We should be lower costs here in America, not waging wars that send prices through the roof. We should be fighting a war against cancer, not another war in the Middle East. We should be investing in our working families, not funding whatever new war Trump decides to start.

So as we now start our appropriations process for fiscal year 2027, I am going to be pressing Trump's Cabinet about these backward priorities. As for the previous fiscal years, I hope my colleagues on the Appropriations Committee can do what we do best: Come together, write commonsense bills that put the priorities of American families first and our communities first.

As I said when I started, we are nearly there on Homeland Security funding, and we got this far despite the obstacles because we have worked so closely in a bipartisan fashion to focus on what is important, what is needed, and truly what we can do best.

And I look forward to working with my colleagues as we start this process. And throughout it, I will be clear with my colleagues: I want to work with you, but we have to write funding bills that instead of slashing funding for our families, we provide significant new investments in the American people, especially as we face major shortfalls, a fast-approaching IIJA cliff, and rising prices that are hitting every family's budget.

And instead of writing a blank check for whatever war Trump wants to start next, we have to write here a measured, strategic defense budget focused on actually keeping our country safe.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source