'Intent On Ignoring The Laws We Write And Seizing More Power': Patty Murray Torches Trump

Forbes Breaking News

During a Senate Appropriations Committee business meeting on Thursday, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) spoke about President Donald Trump.

Transcript

00:00Well thank you very much Chair Collins and congratulations to you on your first

00:03markup. As chair, I really appreciate the opportunity to work with you on this

00:09committee. I also want to thank Senators Moran and Van Hollen, our CJS subcommittee

00:13leaders, Senators Hoven and Shaheen, our AG subcommittee leaders, and Senators

00:19Mullin and Heinrich for your work on the ledge branch and for all the work that

00:23went into these bills today. We have an important job here today to come

00:28together and work through our differences so we can fund the

00:31government, help our families, and make our country safer and stronger, help people

00:36solve problems. It's the job that I've been here for for a long time and over the

00:41past few years we have together on this committee as Chair Collins alluded to

00:45established a strong track record on this committee of coming together despite

00:50serious disagreements to do just that with strong bipartisan bills. Now the

00:55challenges we face and the threats to this very process are greater than ever

01:00before with the president and administration intent on ignoring the

01:04laws that we write and seizing more power for themselves and of course for the

01:09first time ever we are operating now on a partisan full year continuing

01:14resolution for all 12 of our funding bills which turned over more say on how our

01:19constituents taxpayer dollars get spent to unelected bureaucrats than any of us

01:25should be comfortable with. In the face of these immense challenges and threats I

01:30believe it's more important than ever that we ensure our constituents voices are

01:34heard by passing these bipartisan full year spending bills. We cannot afford another

01:41disastrous slush fund CR that lets political appointees and bureaucrats who've

01:47never been to any of our states call the shots. So I'm glad we're here today

01:51taking an important step to do the hard work of finding common ground and

01:56advancing three funding bills that provide crucial investments to our country.

02:01These are not the bills I would have written on my own. I'd like to do a lot more to

02:05help our struggling families and rural communities and develop cutting-edge

02:08technologies and science here in America and I will obviously keep pushing to do

02:13as much as I can at every opportunity. But I also want to say that it is

02:18important that we do understand that we work together on this committee do

02:22compromise and pass our bills together. I also want to say at the top that I share

02:27ranking member Van Hollen's outrage that this administration has on a dime

02:32attempted to reprogram funding secured for the FBI headquarters after this

02:38committee provided funds and a competitive selection process was run. It is

02:43emphatically not how things should work but yet again we are seeing this

02:47president thumb his nose at Congress and do what he wants. This is really

02:51something that we should have been able to address in this bill along with a lot

02:56else and I'm really disappointed that we could not. So while I will be voting yes to

03:01advance this bill and keep the conversation going and support this

03:05bipartisan process it is an issue that I will continue to press on with ranking

03:10member Van Hollen. And I would just say I would caution this committee if my

03:14Republicans colleagues simply stand by and watch this it doesn't take a lot of

03:19imagination to envision a future Democratic president who decides we don't

03:24need to quite fund a FBI agency or building in another state and change the

03:30funding around. So I hope none of us want to help set that precedent for

03:34future presidents or generations. But at the end of the day I do believe these bills

03:39are all a good compromise starting point delivering critical resources to

03:44continue key programs and make targeted new investments. Rejecting some of the

03:49truly harmful proposed cuts by the president and steering clear of the

03:53extreme partisan policies he's requested and that we've seen in some of the

03:57House bills over the last few years. At the end of the day there is no

04:01question in my mind these compromise bills offer a far better outcome for

04:06families back home than the alternatives of either the house or another

04:10disastrous CR. The three bills before us reject efforts to slash meals for hundreds

04:17of thousands of seniors funding to keep people safe investments in cutting-edge

04:22scientific research and a lot more and more than that these bills make

04:26essential investments to keep our country strong from funding that keeps our

04:31families fed food supplies secure and farms flourishing to funding that drives

04:36cutting-edge scientific research that is happening in our states or fuels growing

04:41industries and small businesses. There's also funding for our communities to keep

04:45our families safe. There's funding to help each of us serve the folks who sent us

04:50here investments in staff who help with constituent services experts who provide

04:56crucial insights into legislation capital operations and security that protects

05:01everyone who works here. Say that again. I have to do a mechanical thing here.

05:15Sorry not in my training okay and there's funding to help each of us serve the folks who sent us here

05:25investments in staff who help with constituent services experts who provide crucial

05:30insights into legislation capital operations and security that protect

05:35everyone who works here and comes to visit and important investments in member

05:40security as well. In light of the tragic and assassination and attack on

05:45lawmakers in Minnesota recently it is painfully clear we must do more to

05:50address the threat of political violence that really tears at the heart of this

05:54democracy. So I'm pleased to see some progress and new investments there. It is

05:59clear we've got to do more. I will make sure we continue that conversation. Bottom

06:03line what we are doing here today is how the process should work. Members coming

06:08together writing bills with bipartisan input and I hope we can continue this

06:13process with all of our bills. The challenges that we face are really immense and it is so

06:18important that we do the job that we were sent here to do. But for us to be able to work in a

06:24bipartisan way effectively that requires us to work with each other to not just write bipartisan funding

06:31bills but to defend them from partisan cuts sought by the president and the OMB director. We need to

06:38make sure decisions about what to fund and yes what to rescind are made here in congress on a bipartisan

06:45basis and within our annual funding process. We cannot allow bipartisan funding bills with partisan rescission

06:52packages. It will not work and that is why I will repeat my commitment to all of my colleagues on to my

07:00colleagues and I on this side of the dais we stand ready to discuss rescissions as part of these bipartisan

07:07spending bills as part of these bills and just as this committee has always done working together to

07:13cross across the aisle to look where it makes sense to cut or rescind or reform. I believe that is the path to our

07:21collective success and I hope my colleagues work with us on this offer and reject the rescissions

07:27package next week. So as we mark up this legislation today I hope we all keep our eye on what comes next.

07:34We have nine more bills to get across the finish line and these are decisions that will help us get there

07:40and there are decisions that will make that task a lot harder if not impossible. I spoke about this last week

07:46at the hearing with director Vogt this markup these bills they show the potential of this committee when

07:53it works best. We have a powerful role here where we can do a lot of good for the communities we represent

07:59but I will warn everyone again this committee is not powerful just because it is powerful because we are

08:06able to work together to secure investments that actually become law but if we choose to ignore that

08:13this committee can and will lose its power. If we start passing partisan cuts to bipartisan deals

08:21how are we ever supposed to work together? That is not hypothetical that is a real question

08:26that will be posed by any party line rescission package. There are two roads before us right now

08:32there's the road we peered down at the last hearing the road where this becomes the rescissions committee

08:39looking at package after package of cuts fighting over how much of the last deal that we will unravel

08:45fighting over whose projects get cancelled whose community gets robbed and there is the road that

08:50we are taking a step down today the bipartisan road where we actually work together where we stand

08:56together and get investments back home to the people who sent us here. I know where I want us to go

09:03and so as we vote on these compromise bills today I hope all of my colleagues will not just join me in

09:09advancing these bills but also join me in reflecting on how we got here and how we can best move forward.

09:17We cannot take for granted the spirit of trust the spirit of trust that makes it possible for us to write

09:24bills together. It's easy to damage, pretty hard to repair. Thank you.

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