Patty Murray

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., warned that the Trump administration would have its way with the Army Corps of Engineers budget, at the expense of political foes. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call file photo)

President Trump's transportation secretary said Thursday the FAA's air traffic control system "truly is 25, 35, 40 years old in some places."

Welcome to At the Races! Each week we bring you news and analysis from the CQ Roll Call campaign team. Know someone who’d like to get this newsletter? They can subscribe here. A decision to eliminate freshman honors biology classes in an affluent enclave in Northern California isn’t typically a topic of concern for members of [...]The post At the Races: Democrats go back to school appeared first on Roll Call.

In combative and at times highly personal rejoinders, Kennedy defended the Trump administration’s dramatic effort to reshape the sprawling, $1.7-trillion-a-year agency.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. got into a heated back-and-forth on Capitol Hill Wednesday with Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., during a hearing about his agency's budget for 2026.

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency has come under bipartisan criticism over his agency’s actions to cancel billions of dollars in congressionally approved spending to address chronic pollution in minority communities and jump-start clean energy programs.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins told lawmakers on Tuesday, in his first Capitol Hill appearance since his confirmation, that he is focused on why the VA has been considered high-risk by the Government Accountability Office – and is interested in which agency programs deliver "return on investment."While the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs hearing Tuesday often focused, sometimes contentiously, on the department's staffing and contract reductions over the past three months, Collins spoke positively about breaking down internal departmental silos that he says have been hampering the VA's Oracle Health electronic health record implementation.Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, questioned Secretary Collins on how recent department cuts would affect the rollout of the new EHR to more VA facilities next year.Secretary Collins said that Dr. Neil Evans, the acting program executive director of VA's EHR Modernization Integration Office, has been included in conversations about the VA’s workforce reorganization efforts, which included staffing and contract cuts.Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Michigan, noted that cuts of the department's IT staff would likely affect the EHR rollouts, which Collins did not address when he answered her."I think IT staff are important if we are going to make sure we don't lose records of our veterans," she said.Despite persistent and often still-unresolved issues at VA Medical Centers – including Mann-Grandstaff in Spokane, Washington – planned EHR rollouts are moving forward because "the onus" has been put back on Oracle Health to complete the project, Collins told Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee.Collins said he'd consolidated "eight or nine committees" into one group to directly engage with Oracle on the EHR deployment. For its part, Oracle has said the project could now be accelerated, he explained.In February, Oracle Health Executive VP Seema Verma gave lawmakers an overview of plans to more quickly scale system deployment to the remaining 164 VA healthcare facilities.Meanwhile, the GAO questioned simultaneous EHR system improvements and new deployments in a report released the same week."We’re accelerating the deployment of our modern electronic health record system, after the program was nearly dormant under the Biden Administration," Collins said in his written testimony.But according to Verma's own testimony, completion of more than 3,000 changes to improve stability, add functions and make fixes during a program reset period that began in 2023 has been foundational to pursuing new system rollouts.Sen. Blackburn expressed concerns about the VA having "trouble" getting employees to show up for training on the EHR and then utilizing the system.Collins assured her that EHR training would be a priority of system rollouts at the VA.Andrea Fox is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.Email: [email protected] IT News is a HIMSS Media publication. Enterprise Taxonomy: Core TechnologiesEHRTechnology

It reflects a leader whose hostility toward the press is no secret.

Donald Trump released his budget proposal for the 2026 fiscal year on Friday, which asks Congress to slash more than $163 billion in domestic spending on everything from education funding to medical research to environmental protection.If enacted, the president’s proposed budget would leave domestic spending at its "lowest level in the modern era," The New York Times reported.Among the cuts demanded in Trump’s budget: $18 billion from the National Institutes of Health and $3.5 billion from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which will hamper medical research and efforts to prevent chronic diseases.Related | Your camping plans may be kaput as Trump targets national parksThe draconian budget also calls for axing the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps low-income Americans pay their heating and cooling bills; slashing $900 million from the National Park Service, which is already short-staffed due to co-President Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency cuts; and stripping more than $1.5 billion from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which would make weather forecasting less accurate—and everyone in the path of a storm less safe.Trump also wants to cut $980 million from the federal work study program that helps students pay for college, calling it a “handout to woke universities;” $75 million from the Child Care Access Means Parents in School program, which helps provide childcare services to parents attending college or university; and $49 million from the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, which helps advocate for millions of students with disabilities to get access to public education. But Trump is also asking for more money for the Secret Service, which has to protect him during frequent trips to his personal properties so he can golf; a $43.8 billion increase to the Department of Homeland Security to help him carry out his evil immigration policies; and an additional $134 million for “fair trade and trade enforcement” to help carry out his economically destructive tariffs.Sycophantic House Speaker Mike Johnson loves the proposed budget, calling it a “bold blueprint that reflects the values of hardworking Americans and the commitment to American strength and prosperity.”“Our country cannot continue to bear the hard consequences of years of runaway spending under Democratic leadership, and this budget makes clear that fiscal discipline is non-negotiable,” Johnson added. “President Trump’s plan ensures every federal taxpayer dollar spent is used to serve the American people, not a bloated bureaucracy or partisan pet projects.”However, even some powerful Republican committee chairs are not pleased, and are already saying some of the budget proposals are DOA in Congress—which has to pass a funding bill by Sept. 30 or else face a government shutdown.Sen. Susan Collins of Maine derided the budget as "late" and lacking "key details," adding that she objects to the budget's "proposed freeze in our defense funding."Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, had similar complaints. “Look, no president—and administrations—don’t get to dictate what’s going to happen here,” Cole told reporters on Thursday ahead of the budget’s release. “Congress is not the Army. And the president is the president, but not the commander in chief of Congress.”Democrats are also on offense.House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut called Trump's budget a "roadmap of destruction," saying in a statement, “This is not a budget. It is an all-out assault on our nation’s families, small businesses, and communities in every part of the country.”And Patty Murray of Washington, the ranking Democratic member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said Trump’s budget is a blatant effort to cut benefits for everyday Americans.“President Trump has made his priorities clear as day: he wants to outright defund programs that help working Americans while he shovels massive tax breaks at billionaires like himself and raises taxes on middle-class Americans with his reckless tariffs,” Murray told The Associated Press.Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats would not vote for a funding bill that includes Trump’s proposed cuts.“Democrats are going to fight this heartless budget with everything we’ve got,” Schumer said, calling the budget “a betrayal of working people from a morally bankrupt president.”Campaign Action

The White House has released President Donald Trump’s 2026 budget proposal. It seeks to slash, if not zero out, spending on many government programs. Trump’s plan aims for cuts to child care, disease research, renewable energy and peacekeeping abroad —...

President Donald Trump's 2026 budget plan would slash nondefense domestic spending by $163 billion while increasing expenditures on national security.

'It’s a mistake'

President Trump and Elon Musk have said they want to reduce fraud, waste, and abuse in the federal government.

Federal funds to help disease research to Head Start for children to disaster aid have all been impacted.

The Women’s Health Initiative has been tracking tens of thousands of women for decades.

Senators Brian Schatz, Patty Murray and Sheldon Whitehouse could be considered potential successors for Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., was lambasted by the family of a man being held captive in Venezuela after she took the mantle of Sen. Chris Van Hollen's Salvadoran cause.

Federal databases show Head Start centers across the U.S. have received nearly $1 billion less in federal funding compared with this time last year. This week, the lag in funding caused some preschool classrooms for 400 low-income children to close...

The Capitol dome is lit as the Senate prepares to begin its vote-a-rama on the GOP’s budget resolution on Friday evening.

Employees at the HHS regional office and a CDC occupational safety laboratory in Spokane were abruptly fired. Head Start staff are on administrative leave.

Employees across the massive U.S. Health and Human Services Department began receiving notices of dismissal Tuesday in an overhaul ultimately expected to lay off up to 10,000 people.

Democratic Senator Patty Murray is pushing back on the Trump administration's plans to push out 20,000 workers from the Department of Health and Human Services.

'The pandemic is over,' says the Department of Health and Human Services. State officials say the money was meant for other diseases too.

President Donald Trump informed the U.S. Congress Monday that he was withholding $3 billion in emergency spending authorized in the stopgap spending bill that was approved last week.

The Trump administration says it hopes to save $11.4 billion by freezing and revoking COVID-era grants.

A Democratic senator says she's worried about the fallout from a major overhaul and layoffs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington says it doesn't take a genius to understand “pushing out...

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the head of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, and her Democratic counterpart are challenging the Trump administration’s handling of emergency funding included in legislation passed earlier this month. In the letter addressed to President Trump’s budget chief Russell Vought, Collins and Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), the top Democrat on the funding committee, take [...]

Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., says the money wasn't needed anymore and therefore available for higher priorities.

Completing its dismantling is most likely impossible without an act of Congress, which created the department in 1979. Republicans said they will introduce a bill to achieve that.

Democrats said the order will be fought in the courts and in Congress, and they urged Republicans to join them in opposition.

President Trump has signed an executive order Thursday directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to dismantle the Department of Education as much as she can, carving a path of legislative and legal fights to come. While the White House acknowledges the department cannot be fully eliminated without Congress, the order tells McMahon to do everything legally [...]

A government shutdown has officially been averted, as President Donald Trump signs the continuing resolution into law.

The parents claim their son was subjected to racist taunts and demanded that the school board take action to combat racism in schools.

Senate Democrats say they will not vote for the House-passed six-month government funding package, which would boost defense spending and cut nondefense programs, unless they first get a vote on a 30-day funding stopgap to give bipartisan negotiators more time to reach a deal on the annual appropriations bills. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) [...]

Senate Democrats are considering the path forward after the House narrowly approved a stopgap measure to keep the government funded.

Senate Democrats say the six-month government funding resolution that passed the House Tuesday is a “horrible” bill, but there’s growing sentiment within the Senate Democratic conference that it would be too risky to block the legislation and risk a government shutdown that could drag on for weeks. Senate Democrats battled behind closed doors Tuesday over [...]

Congress has until midnight on March 14 to avoid a partial government shutdown.

The 99-page bill would provide a slight boost to defense programs while trimming nondefense programs below 2024 budget year levels.

President Donald Trump will stand before a joint session of Congress on Tuesday to give an accounting of his turbulent first weeks in office as a divided nation struggles to keep pace, with some Americans fearing for the country's future while others are cheering him on.

At least 11 senators and House members are skipping Tuesday night’s joint session of Congress, where Donald Trump will deliver his first speech to both chambers since starting his second term as president. Instead of listening to Trump’s grim vision for America, the lawmakers are opting to spend time with voters or provide a response to the speech while away from Capitol Hill.Sen. Patty Murray of Washington announced in a press release on Monday that she will be meeting with constituents negatively impacted by the Trump administration.“I will not be attending President Trump’s address to Congress,” said Murray. “The state of the union is that the President is spitting in the face of the law and he is letting an unelected billionaire fire cancer researchers and wreck federal agencies like the Social Security Administration at will.”Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York also shared on Tuesday that she won’t be there to watch Trump’s speech either. “I’m not going to the Joint Address,” she said in a Bluesky post. “I will be live posting and chatting with you all here instead. Then going on IG Live after.”xI’m not going to the Joint Address. I will be live posting and chatting with you all here instead. Then going on IG Live after.— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@aoc.bsky.social) March 4, 2025 at 10:08 AMSen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut announced he’s boycotting the event to provide real-time analysis with progressive activist group MoveOn. He’ll be joined by fellow senators Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland, and Ed Markey of Massachusetts.“[W]e won’t waste a second in responding to Trump’s stream of lies at the State of the Union. I’m not attending in person. Instead I’m partnering w @moveon.org to provide live real time response. Join us to learn the truth about the billionaire seizure of our government,” Murphy posted on Bluesky. xNext Tuesday, we won’t waste a second in responding to Trump’s steam of lies at the State of the Union. I’m not attending in person. Instead I’m partnering w @moveon.org to provide live real time response. Join us to learn the truth about the billionaire seizure of our government.[image or embed]— Chris Murphy (@chrismurphyct.bsky.social) February 28, 2025 at 12:31 PMDemocrats have railed against Trump and his administration since he kicked off his second term by swiftly and recklessly gutting federal agencies, watchdogs, and employees; allowing billionaire Elon Musk’s unvetted underlings to access Americans’ sensitive data; and issuing sweeping executive orders at breakneck speed, even though they often appeared unconstitutional.Rep. Becca Balint of Vermont announced on Tuesday she’ll join MoveOn and skip the speech as well.“I attended the inauguration because I believe in the peaceful transfer of power, but Trump spewed lies, stoked division and fear and made no effort to unify our country,” said Balint in a press release. “There is no doubt tonight’s presidential address will be more of the same.”Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia told his Bluesky followers he would not be in attendance in a video announcement on Tuesday.“When he looks at Congress Trump only sees supplicants or enemies who write the laws he refuses to follow,” Beyer said. “In his speech he will preen and gloat about his return to power and his abuses of that power ... I’m spending this week rallying with my constituents.”xTonight Trump will address a coequal branch of government for which he has shown total contempt.Meanwhile my constituents are seeing their livelihoods destroyed by illegal actions.What he is doing is not normal, it is not acceptable, and I won't be attending.www.youtube.com/shorts/MlTIB...[image or embed]— Congressman Don Beyer (@beyer.house.gov) March 4, 2025 at 6:46 AMFirst-term Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan is tapped to give the Democratic rebuttal after Trump’s speech. In his announcement on Thursday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said that as “nothing short of a rising star in our party, Elissa has proven she can get things done.” The White House kicked off its smear campaign against her in a press release on Tuesday, calling Slotkin “just another out-of-touch politician that wants to hollow out American manufacturing and let criminals flood into our communities.”The Working Families Party chose Rep. Lateefah Simon of California to deliver a progressive rebuttal to Trump’s speech.“Working people are looking for leaders who will fight for them, and Rep. Lateefah Simon was born to lead in this moment,” said Maurice Mitchell, national director of the Working Families Party. “As a working mom who has struggled with the crushing weight of medical debt, Rep. Simon understands what Trump’s attacks on Medicare and Medicaid will mean to millions of families in our country.”Other Democrats who are skipping the speech include Reps. Gerry Connolly of Virginia and Kweise Mfume of Maryland. Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico is also bowing out of Trump’s big moment, and said, “I’ll start attending when he starts following the law.”xI’m not going to President Trump's Joint Address tonight. I'll start attending when he starts following the law.— Senator Martin Heinrich (@senatorheinrich.bsky.social) March 4, 2025 at 8:01 AMMeanwhile, some Democrats who are attending have invited fired federal employees as their guests. They are among the thousands of government workers who have lost their jobs thanks to reckless cuts by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, led by co-President Musk.This Democratic boycott highlights deep divisions in Washington as Trump readies to outline his plans for the country. With competing rebuttals from Democratic Party leaders, the response to his speech is likely to be as telling as the address itself.Campaign Action

President Donald Trump touted his newly imposed tariffs and basked in Republican applause for his administration’s swift early actions, while drawing a wave of protests from Democrats as he spoke to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday.Leaning into culture wars, Trump inveighed against transgender rights, “they/them” pronouns, and diversity, equity and inclusion programs. He celebrated his crackdown on migration. He repeatedly taunted his predecessor, Joe Biden, saying the former president imposed “insane and very dangerous open border policies.” “Wokeness is bad,” Trump said. “It’s gone.”Trump was heckled and disrupted by congressional Democrats in the room, who shouted at him not to cut Medicaid, waved an eclectic mix of signs to protest him and periodically shouted antagonistically at the president.Here are five takeaways from the speech — and how it sets up the rest of Trump’s 2025.Trump defends his tariffsTrump defended the sweeping 25% tariffs he imposed Tuesday on products from Canada and Mexico, saying “now it’s our turn” after other countries have levied them against the U.S.“It’s very unfair,” Trump said as scores of Republicans stood up to applaud his tariffs, with the president saying they “are about protecting the soul of our country.”It’s a sign of how Trump has transformed the traditionally pro-free trade GOP, though there is some unease in the party about the tariffs’ effects on prices and the broader economy.“There’ll be a little disturbance,” Trump added. “But we’re OK with that. It won’t be much,” the president added.The tariffs sent stocks tumbling Tuesday, and some Democrats shouted “stock market!” as Trump spoke.Trump also promised an economic revival and blamed ongoing problems like inflation and egg prices on Biden.Trump outlines his policy agendaTrump spent significant time on issues ranging from transgender athletes to the work of the Department of Government Efficiency. But the biggest thing Congress may work on this year will be a massive tax and spending bill, and Trump outlined his priorities.Trump reiterated his calls for cutting taxes and including several campaign-trail tax promises in a bill later this year — specifically nixing taxes on tips and overtime. Congressional Republicans are wrestling with the feasibility of those proposals as they seek to pass a big party-line bill advancing core pieces of Trump’s agenda. They are still seeking to find room for the trillions of dollars in tax breaks that Trump has called for.The president also called for repealing the CHIPS and Science Act, a bipartisan law that passed the Senate 64-33 and was signed by Biden in 2022.“We should get rid of the Chip Act,” Trump said, referring to the law that invests in domestic research and semiconductor manufacturing.Democrats heckle, wave signs and interruptWithin minutes of Trump’s speech beginning, Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, interrupted and heckled him, yelling, “You have no mandate to cut Medicaid.” He was escorted out after refusing to stop shouting. There were other unintelligible shouts from Democrats during the speech. At another point in Trump’s speech, several Democratic members walked out of the chamber in protest.A group of House Democrats waved signs that read “MUSK STEALS,” “SAVE MEDICAID,” and “PROTECT VETERANS.” Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., brought a whiteboard and wrote different messages on it through Trump’s speech, including “NO KING” and “LIES.”Some Democrats laughed out loud when Trump said the era of rule by “unelected bureaucrats” is over, and pointed at Trump’s billionaire adviser Elon Musk, who sat in the gallery and watched.Other Democrats skipped Trump’s speech entirely, including Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who wants to lead his party’s strategy, and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the vice chair of the Appropriations Committee and the recent former Senate president pro tempore.The top three Democratic leaders in each chamber attended. They, like most others in the party, sat quietly and listened without disrupting the president’s remarks, as Democrats work through their loss in 2024 and how best to advance their agenda and oppose Trump’s in 2025 and beyond.Trump soaks in GOP adulationIt’s been months since Trump played to the crowd at one of his signature political rallies. But he got a hero’s welcome and a standing ovation from Republicans in the Capitol, who regularly leapt to their feet to applaud him.As Trump said he’s waging the “most sweeping border and immigration crackdown in American history,” and touted actions he has taken, the GOP side of the aisle erupted into chants of “Trump! Trump! Trump.”Trump had no olive branch to offer his opponents, instead needling Democrats at the beginning of his speech, saying there was nothing he could say that would make them clap or smile — and later blasting “radical left lunatics” who he called weak on crime. In response, some Democrats yelled, “January 6th!” referring to Trump’s pardons of rioters who stormed the Capitol, some of whom attacked police officers.Biden offered during his first address to Congress to team up on “bipartisan” goals — a term he used multiple times in 2021 — like infrastructure, cancer research and access to education.Trump, meanwhile, chided Democrats early in his speech for refusing to give him enough. He set the tone early by calling Biden “the worst president in American history” and played to a longtime presidential tradition: blaming his predecessor for problems facing the country.“Everybody here — even this side — I appreciate you,” Trump quipped, drawing laughter from the GOP side of the aisle.Ukraine, Panama Canal and GreenlandTrump lamented the billions of dollars that the U.S. has spent to help Ukraine defend itself from Russia’s incursion, drawing ironic and extended applause from Democrats who support the military and economic assistance.“You want to keep it going for another five years?” Trump asked.“Pocahontas says yes,” he said, using a derisive nickname for Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., which prompted numerous Democrats to walk out of the chamber.Trump also kept up his calls for bringing the Panama Canal and Greenland into U.S. control.“We didn’t give it to China. We gave it to Panama. We’re taking it back,” Trump said of the Panama Canal.“We need Greenland for national security and international security,” the president continued, while calling it a “very, very large piece of land.”“I think we’re going to get it. One way or the other we’re going to get it,” he said, as Republicans applauded and laughed.This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:Judge blocks Trump order threatening funding for institutions that provide gender-affirming care for youthsTrump adviser Alina Habba says veterans fired by DOGE are perhaps ‘not fit to have a job at this moment’Trump could scale back Canada, Mexico tariffs Wednesday, Lutnick says

Plus, how to watch and who will be there.

Plus, how to watch and who will be there.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump will stand before a joint session of Congress on Tuesday to give an accounting of his turbulent first weeks in office as a divided nation struggles to keep pace, with some Americans fearing for the country’s future while others are cheering him on.

The government will shut down on March 14 if Congress doesn’t approve a new spending plan before then.

President Donald Trump's budget plan is making its way through Capitol Hill.

"This is the ultimate dick boss move from Musk - except he isn’t even the boss, he’s just a dick."

Senate Majority Leader John Thune has teed up a vote on a budget plan designed to give President Donald Trump an early policy win.