LOWERING COSTS
Patty Murray’s top priority in Congress right now is lowering everyday costs for people in Washington state. In just the past year and a half, Patty has helped pass major legislation to lower prescription drug costs, lower health care costs, and lower energy costs. Patty is fighting in Congress to pass her child care plan to save parents thousands of dollars per year on child care. Patty is also focused on getting state and local governments the resources they need to build more housing to drive down rent and mortgage costs for families everywhere.
And she’s passed legislation to lower costs in the long-term, too–investing in our infrastructure and strengthening supply chains so that more goods and services are available to help drive down costs.
MIDDLE-CLASS TAX CUTS, NOT TAX BREAKS FOR BILLIONAIRES
Patty is focused on building an economy that puts working people and middle-class families in Washington state first, not billionaires and giant corporations. That’s why Patty helped push for and pass one of the largest middle-class tax cuts in history through the expanded Child Tax Credit, which cut child poverty nearly in half. After the passage of the American Rescue Plan, the New York Times said Patty deployed the “legislative muscle and deep experience to deliver on [President Biden’s] bold promises.” In Congress, Murray is fighting to make the expanded Child Tax Credit permanent.
INVESTING IN AMERICAN MANUFACTURING AND WASHINGTON STATE JOBS
Patty helped pass the CHIPS and Science Act so that we could make semiconductors–which our families need for everything from cars to appliances to electronics–right here in America and especially in Washington state. This will create good-paying jobs right here in Washington and ensure we aren’t reliant on overseas supply chains for these semiconductors and will ultimately help get more goods on shelves and bring down costs.
Patty also helped pass the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, a landmark investment in job-creating traditional infrastructure like roads, bridges, and ports, as well as in public transit, clean energy and universal broadband. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will help create good-paying jobs in every part of Washington state. Steps to strengthen supply chains through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will also ease bottlenecks, fight inflation, and help bring down costs.
Patty believes strongly that working people deserve fair wages, good benefits, and safe working conditions–that’s why she’s fighting to pass the Protecting the Right to Organize Act so that every worker can choose to join a union if they want, and that same commitment to working families is why she’s leading the fight to make paid family and medical leave a reality.
PROTECTING OUR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
Patty Murray has led the fight in the Senate to protect reproductive rights. That’s why the Washington Post characterized her as, “the single most effective Democratic combatant against Republican attempts to restrict abortion and otherwise roll back reproductive health-care rights on Capitol Hill.” In the Senate, Patty Murray is leading the fight to pass her bill to codify Roe and restore every woman’s right to make her own health care decisions. Patty has always stood strong fighting to make contraception more accessible and affordable for women everywhere–beating back countless Republican attempts to defund Planned Parenthood and other family planning services, and is widely credited with forcing the Bush administration to make Plan B available over the counter.
PROTECTING OUR DEMOCRACY
Patty was in the Capitol during the violent insurrection on January 6th and voted to convict former President Trump for working to overturn the peaceful transfer of power. Patty knows that we can’t take our democracy for granted–that’s why she’s focused on ensuring that every American can make their voice heard at the ballot box and is fighting to pass strong, federal voting rights protections and is working to ban partisan gerrymandering. Patty will never shy away from standing up to election deniers like Donald Trump to preserve our democracy.
MAKING HEALTH CARE AFFORDABLE
Patty passed a bill this summer to finally allow Medicare to force pharmaceutical companies to the negotiating table to lower the cost of prescription drugs for everyone. Patty’s bill will also cap out-of-pocket costs for Medicare beneficiaries at $2,000 per year, cap their cost of insulin at $35/month, and stop drug companies from jacking up prices on seniors.
Patty helped negotiate and pass the Affordable Care Act to protect Americans with preexisting conditions and expand coverage–in the American Rescue Plan she helped author health care tax credits to lower the cost of health insurance for families in Washington state–Patty successfully fought to extend those tax credits for another three years.
Patty, who Chairs the Senate Health Committee, wrote the No Surprises Act to ban surprise medical bills — and got the legislation signed into law under the Trump Administration. While Washington state took action against surprise medical bills, the state law could only extend to state-regulated plans and did not cover the estimated 2 million individuals and families who get their health insurance through a large employer. Patty’s No Surprises Act expanded those protections for more than 2 million people in Washington state — and is projected to prevent more than 12 million surprise medical bills this year alone.
CLIMATE ACTION AND A CLEAN ENERGY ECONOMY
Patty helped pass the Inflation Reduction Act, the most significant legislation in U.S. history to tackle the climate crisis and strengthen American energy security. Patty’s climate action bill will lower energy costs for Washington state households and businesses, promote real and long-term energy independence, create good-paying manufacturing jobs, and help drastically cut carbon emissions. Through rebates and tax credits, the Inflation Reduction Act will make it more affordable for Washington families to purchase energy efficient appliances when they need to, make repairs around their homes, and save money on their utility bills each month. One analysis found that Patty’s climate bill would help save the average household $1,800 per year on energy bills. Washington families can calculate their potential savings HERE. Patty knows that preserving our planet and environment for future generations goes hand in hand with building a stronger, clean energy economy.
STANDING UP FOR OUR VETERANS
Patty is the daughter of a WWII veteran and purple heart recipient. When her dad got sick with Multiple Sclerosis, the VA helped provide the care he needed–Patty wants to make sure every veteran gets the care they deserve and that’s why, when she was first elected, she specifically asked to serve on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee. Patty wrote and passed the bipartisan VOW to Hire Our Heroes Act to help boost veteran employment, wrote and passed legislation to expand the caregivers program to veterans of all eras, and restarted the federal HUD-VASH program to help get homeless veterans housed. Patty has been a forceful voice for oversight of the VA and has repeatedly fought back successfully against proposed closures of VA facilities in Washington state. Recently, Patty helped pass the PACT Act to get health care to veterans exposed to toxic substances in the line of duty and in that same bill secured funding to open a new VA clinic in the Tri-Cities.
BUILDING SAFER COMMUNITIES
Patty is focused on building safer communities through hard work and real partnership at every level of government. That’s why she made sure the American Rescue Plan provided federal resources to help keep police officers and other first responders on the job and to hire more. Patty is focused on tackling crime from every angle–she helped pass the bipartisan Safer Communities Act which keeps guns out of the hands of domestic abusers, expands background checks on people under 21, and invests in local community-based violence prevention initiatives. Patty is fighting for common sense gun safety reforms like universal background checks, an assault weapons ban—and she beat the gun lobby to make sure the CDC could finally conduct gun violence prevention research. Patty is also focused on strengthening our investments to tackle the mental health and substance use disorder crises–Patty negotiated and passed major legislation to tackle the addiction crisis under the Trump administration and is currently working to pass bipartisan legislation that expands on her longtime efforts to support local communities.
QUALITY EDUCATION NO MATTER YOUR ZIP CODE
Patty believes every student should be able to get a great public education no matter where they live in Washington state. That’s why she consistently leads the fight in Congress to fund our public schools. During the pandemic, Patty led the charge to reopen schools and get our kids back in the classroom safely and as quickly as possible. Patty made sure the American Rescue Plan included resources to help expand afterschool and summer school programs to help our kids’ learning get back on track and is squarely focused on making sure our students have what they need to learn and catch up. Patty always puts our kids first and when no one was able to agree on how to fix the broken No Child Left Behind law, she was able to work with Republicans to rewrite that law and end its unfunded mandates and burdensome federal testing requirements.
Patty also believes college and quality technical and career training should be within reach for every American. Patty has passed major bipartisan investments in workforce training and technical training before–and she’s committed to making sure Washington state workers have the skills they need for the manufacturing, clean energy, and infrastructure jobs that are being created in our communities. Patty and her siblings all graduated college–but only with the help of federal assistance. As a former preschool teacher and community college instructor, Patty is passionate about passing her plans to offer every family free pre-K, lower the cost of college, and fix our student loan system in the long term.
LOWERING THE COST OF HOUSING
Patty recognizes that homelessness was a crisis in Washington state even before COVID. She fought to provide critical resources for Washington state in the American Rescue Plan to help people get and stay housed—from thousands of new Emergency Housing Vouchers, to rental and homeowner assistance so people could stay in their homes.
Patty understands that homelessness is a challenge that will require local, state, and federal cooperation on long-term solutions. In the Senate she’s focused on fighting for Washington state to have the federal resources to help get people access to housing, treatment, and job training.
Patty believes that safe, stable housing shouldn’t be a privilege in the United States of America—and the dream of owning your own home, let alone making rent, shouldn’t feel so ridiculously out of reach for so many people. That’s why Patty is focused on bringing down the housing costs through a major federal action to boost housing supply in partnership with local communities. Increasing housing supply will help bring down costs for everyone and tackle one of the main drivers of inflation.
PUTTING WASHINGTON FIRST
Patty is always focused on how she can make sure the federal government’s priorities are Washington state’s priorities, whether that’s securing historic funding in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to replace and remove culverts to save our salmon or stopping the proposed closure of the Walla Walla VA Clinic. Patty helped make Sound Transit a reality and has been a major advocate for public transit investments across the state–she even started a federal grant program for local infrastructure needs that has helped construct numerous major projects across the state. Patty also knows how important preserving the breathtaking public lands in our state is to our local communities and economies–Patty has passed some of the most expansive conservation legislation on a bipartisan basis during her tenure in the Senate and protecting our air and water continues to be a top priority for her in the Senate. Importantly, Patty is a strong and consistent voice for our Tribes–making sure that the Violence Against Women Act provided protections for Native and Indigenous women and delivered important investments for Tribal and rural communities through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law like putting Washington state on the path to make high-speed internet a reality for every community in Washington state.