Murray, Cantwell, Padilla, & Schiff Call Out Trump for Robbing Blue States of Army Corps Funds

Video Description

The Senate delegations from Washington state and California will host a press conference to call out President Trump’s outrageous, nakedly political decision to zero out critical funding for Army Corps of Engineers construction projects in blue states like Washington and California while steering hundreds of millions more to red states. U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development; U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA), and U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) will call out how, in plans released late last week, the Army Corps announced it intends to zero out all Army Corps construction funding for the state of California, as well as $500 million for the Howard Hanson Dam in Washington state. California was set to receive well over $100 million in funding for projects and the Howard Hanson Dam in Washington state was set to receive $500 million—in the Corps’ fiscal year 2025 budget request, in the Senate’s bipartisan draft fiscal year 2025 funding bill, and even in House Republicans’ draft fiscal year 2025 funding bill. But the Trump administration—using the new discretion afforded by the yearlong CR House Republicans drafted that was signed into law—ignored the draft bills and instead apportioned funding on a nakedly political basis. Overall, the Army Corps’ plans would steer roughly $258 million dollars more in construction funding to red states while ripping away roughly $437 million dollars in construction funding for blue states, relative to the fiscal year 2025 request—which, historically, has been fully funded and was fully funded in the draft fiscal year 2025 bills produced on a bipartisan basis in the Senate and by House Republicans in the House. Trump’s work plan steers two-thirds of all Army Corps construction funding to red states while the budget request and House and Senate bills would have split that funding evenly to red and blue states.