Senator Murray Remarks at Press Conference Following Senate Vote to Pass Five Funding Bills While Splitting Off DHS Bill

WATCH : Senator Murray's remarks

ICYMI : Senate Passes Five Funding Bills, Strips Out DHS Bill to Ensure Negotiations Proceed to Rein in ICE and CBP

Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, delivered the following remarks at a press conference, alongside Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI), after final passage of five more fiscal year 2026 appropriations bills. The amended package strips the Homeland Security bill out of the six-bill package sent over by the House last week and starts a two-week clock to renegotiate the bill.

Senator Murray's remarks, as delivered, are below:

"All week, Senate Democrats have been exceptionally clear: we cannot-and will not-pass a DHS bill until ICE and CBP are reined in.

" We laid out a clear-and common-sense-path forward: pass these five funding bills we all overwhelmingly agree on, while splitting off the DHS bill and forcing Congress to take action to rein in Kristi Noem's out-of-control Department. And today, tonight, that's what the Senate has done.

"Look, this is a pretty somber moment we're in. I very seriously doubt the White House would have agreed to renegotiate constraints on DHS if not for the national outcry from the American people. America saw the killing of Alex Pretti, and America was rightly enraged-not even 3 weeks since the killing of Renee Good. And understand: the country witnessed that awful killing after weeks of seeing nonstop scenes of brutality on the streets of Minneapolis.

"But because the American people said enough, we were then able to press the Republicans to split off the DHS funding bill so we can work on oversight. And over the next few days, Senate Democrats will be focused on negotiating real restraints to put an end to the chaos we're seeing on our streets.

"For years, Republicans have warned of rogue federal agencies infringing upon people's most basic constitutional rights. That, of course, is exactly what is happening now.

"So, if they are serious about those warnings, if Republicans are serious about preventing Americans from being murdered by masked federal agents, they will work with us over the next two weeks to rein those agencies in-which is what the vast majority of Americans are demanding we do.

"If Republicans want Democratic votes-they need to work with us to end the unacceptable brutality we're seeing in Minnesota and elsewhere.

"I'll be doing everything I possibly can to ensure that Congress acts-and that we meet this moment. And in the meantime-we have torn up Trump's budget and written a new one, by passing five more funding bills for the year ahead.

"The message to President Trump is : America will continue to fund cancer research. We are going to keep investing in affordable housing and tackling homelessness. Congress will not abolish the Department of Education. That message, and this bill, is headed his way, and he's going to sign that bill into law.

"Importantly, these bills ensure that Congress-not President Trump or Russ Vought-decide how our taxpayer dollars get spent by reasserting Congress' power of the purse. Getting these bills signed into law means President Trump and his cabinet secretaries will no longer have the legal authority to unilaterally defund programs to fund their own priorities or to pick and choose which projects to fund. That matters-that matters-and it is a very important victory for the American people and for our democracy.

"You have to remember that Congress is a co-equal branch, but it has to act like one.

"Democrats being at the table made a difference in these bills. We held firm to protect NIH. We held firm to protect affordable housing. We held firm to protect public education. And we held firm to put working people first.

"And because we held firm-we got major concessions out of Republicans, forcing Congress to do the right thing on many, many issues, even if it meant going against Trump, something that was unthinkable this time last year. And now we are focused on doing the same thing when it comes to meaningful DHS reforms."

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