Senator Murray on Passage of CR

Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, issued the following statement on Senate passage of the negotiated continuing resolution (CR) that keeps the government funded through December 11.

“This is an important step forward to prevent a shutdown no one wants and provide the runway we need to negotiate funding bills in the months ahead, as we fight to rein in Trump’s corruption and make life more affordable for families back home.

“I urge the House to take this straightforward bill up and pass it as soon as they return to session.”

Background on the CR

The negotiated CR addresses key problems with House Republicans’ CR:

• It closes the loophole that would have allowed the Trump administration to transfer funding for other programs to Border Patrol.
• It includes important anomalies that House Republicans neglected to include, including anomalies needed to allow housing programs to keep serving Americans, to ensure the Commodity Supplemental Food Program has the funds needed to continue serving low-income seniors, and more.
• It extends authorizations of important health, veterans, infrastructure, and other programs for the duration of the CR.

Senate Democrats also secured language to prevent the Trump administration from implementing the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) proposed grants rule through the duration of the CR. Earlier this summer, every Senate Democrat called on OMB to withdraw the rule, which would put Trump political appointees in charge of signing off on every last federal grant and empower them to terminate funding at any point for any reason. Vice Chair Murray will continue pushing to block the proposed rule once and for all.

The CR also rejects President Trump’s request to include new funding and flexibilities for the Pentagon through anomalies, including his request for $1 billion to build “Trump-class” battleships.

Republicans rejected Democrats’ efforts to, among other things:

• Extend advanced appropriations provided by Division J of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) beyond the law’s expiration on October 1—in order to save good jobs and keep rebuilding America’s infrastructure. Vice Chair Murray has been warning about the looming infrastructure cliff for months and has emphasized that as tens of billions of dollars in infrastructure funds expire this fall, it is all the more important that Congress secures a topline funding agreement with significantly more nondefense funding.
• Protect Congress’ power of the purse and prevent Russ Vought from impounding funding and attempting another “pocket rescission.”

Text of the continuing resolution is available HERE. Text of the authorizing divisions is available HERE.

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