Bipartisan Transportation and Housing Bill Filibustered: Murray to Continue Fighting for National, Washington State Priorities

Press Release

Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development, released the following statement after Senate Republicans filibustered the bipartisan transportation and housing bill she wrote with Senator Susan Collins (R-ME). Despite having a bipartisan majority of the Senate supporting the bill, it failed to get the sixty votes needed to break a Republican-led filibuster on a 54-43 vote.

"I am extremely disappointed that the Senate Republican leadership chose gridlock over jobs and obstruction over economic growth. Investing in jobs, infrastructure, and broad-based economic growth shouldn't be a partisan issue. But by filibustering this bill, Republicans are threatening critical infrastructure and housing investments that workers, families, and communities across the country are counting on.

"I hope that the Senators who filibustered this bill will go home, talk to their constituents, and be persuaded to come back to the table and work with us to invest in jobs and the economy. I know that is what the families and communities I represent in Washington state want, and I am not going to stop fighting for it."

The bipartisan transportation and housing bill includes $500 million in new federal funding for bridges that service crucial corridors, such as the I-5 bridge that collapsed last month in Skagit County, WA, and $550 million for the popular TIGER program which provides grants for significant projects in a variety of transportation modes, including highways and bridges, public transit, passenger and freight railroads, and port infrastructure. It also includes $3.15 billion to support local investments in infrastructure, housing, services and economic development through the Community Development Block Grant program.

Before the Republican filibuster, Senator Murray spoke on the Senate floor urging her colleagues to allow this bill to have an up-or-down vote.

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