US Senate News:
Source: United States Senator for Washington State Patty Murray
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, issued the following statement on the release of President Trump’s fiscal year 2026 budget request, which proposes slashing critical investments in non-defense programs that matter immensely to families and our country’s competitiveness and future.
“It’s telling that President Trump has chosen to release his budget on a Friday night with no fanfare whatsoever. That’s probably because his budget would raise costs for working people, destroy basic services we all count on, and let our adversaries run circles around us—all while President Trump works to shower billionaires like himself in new tax breaks.
“For President Trump: it’s no billionaire left behind—and good luck to everyone else.
“This budget would outright eliminate programs that help working families afford the basics, gut investments in our students and schools, slash Pell Grants, and kick hundreds of thousands of Americans out of their homes. President Trump wants to let America’s small businesses go under, turn his back on our Tribes, and let trash pile up at our national parks.
“America’s research enterprise has long been the envy of the world, driving awe-inspiring technological progress and producing medical treatments and cures that have saved millions of lives. But President Trump is now proposing to destroy it by nearly halving the NIH’s budget and gutting all kinds of cutting-edge scientific research. You might as well gift wrap the future and hand it to China.
“President Trump apparently wants to make our communities less safe and healthy—because he is now asking Congress to gut funding to prevent violent crime, crack down on drug trafficking, tackle the opioids and mental health crises, and protect people’s health.
“This president wants to explode the debt and deficit by trillions of dollars to help line billionaires’ pockets while kicking millions off their health care and shredding investments that matter most to families and our country’s success.
“This is now the latest budget request in history, and remarkably, it is not even complete, because it still lacks all manner of essential details.
“This is a draconian proposal to hurt working people and our economy, and it is dead on arrival in Congress as long as I have anything to say about it. But this is just another reminder we need Republicans to join us to reject these reckless cuts, focus on the investments we actually need to make in our communities and security, and to finally force Trump to follow the law and end his devastating funding freeze.”
On President Trump’s proposed budget for Hanford, Howard Hanson Dam, and the Puget Sound Geographic Program, Senator Murray said:
“The president’s proposed budget for Hanford is utterly unacceptable and will be going nowhere as far as I am concerned. Trump’s proposal for Hanford would force us to fall behind on the cleanup mission at a critical time, leaving key milestones unmet and raising the cost of the cleanup in the long run—not to mention increasing the safety and environmental risks for the Tri-Cities. Writing spending bills will be challenging, but I’ll be fighting to support Hanford, the workers powering the cleanup mission, and the Tri-Cities community.
“Similarly, it is disappointing that Trump is providing zero construction funding for the Howard Hanson Dam, a shovel-ready project that is absolutely critical to ensuring long-term water reliability for over one million people in Washington state and saving endangered salmon. Trump is also proposing a devastating $25 million cut to the Puget Sound Geographic Program, which will seriously set back progress to save our salmon and protect and restore our water quality and ecosystems throughout the Puget Sound. Trump’s budget request for Geographic Programs appears to continue a corrupt pattern of targeting blue states by ripping away their funding while sparing red states—this is a politically motivated abuse of power that should be deeply troubling to everyone.
“As I’ve said many times, President Trump’s shortsightedness is going to have severe consequences down the road. I will be tearing up Trump’s budget and working hard to help write a new one.”