Patty in the News

Susan Davis

Women have reached unparalleled numbers and levels of power in the U.S. Senate this year, exemplified by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., a low-key former educator who is the first woman to take over the helm of the Senate Budget Committee. In her first three months in that job, Murray led the effort to pass the first Senate budget in nearly four years, uniting Democrats behind a fiscal road map that serves as the party's agenda for the fiscal wars. Those battles will resume this year when Washington will again battle over spending cuts, federal funding levels and raising the nation's borrowing limit. She did it without appearing on any Sunday news programs, underscoring Murray's willingness to defer the media spotlight to colleagues such as Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who have appeared a dozen times each on Sunday shows this year.

- USA Today

Katherine Long

The rate on federal subsidized loans rose Monday from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent, after Congress was unable to come up with a compromise to retain the lower rate.

“The cost of a college education has never been higher,” said U.S. Sen. Patty Murray. “Many students and their families are forced to take on mountains of debt to pay for a degree. ... Because Congress can’t agree on a lot these days, interest rates are going to go up starting today.”

- Seattle Times

SEATTLE — It’s a tough day to be a college student.

Loan interest rates doubled Monday, July 1, because Congress was unable to come up with a plan to avoid the increase. Sen. Patty Murray and other Democratic members of Washington’s congressional delegation joined students at the University of Washington to urge their colleagues to act.

- Q13 News

David Lightman

The vote was a robust endorsement of a 1,200-page bill painstakingly crafted by the “Gang of Eight” senators from both parties and amended this week to bring in some skeptics. Fourteen Republicans joined 52 Democrats and two independents in voting yes Thursday, while 32 Republicans voted no. Washington’s senators, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, both voted for the measure.

- Seattle Times

Joel Connelly

The duty of the U.S. Supreme Court is to read the law, but its decision overturning the federal Defense of Marriage Act demonstrates how high court justices have two other areas of close study. The Supreme Court follows election returns, and the nation’s social trends.

“They live in this country: They swim in the oceans of culture,” Pam Karlan, co-director of Stanford University’s Supreme Court litigation workshop, and herself a former clerk at the court, told a workshop in California last weekend.

- Seattle PI

Christina Samuels

Speaking both as an elected official and a former preschool teacher, Washington Sen. Patty Murray told a crowd of early-education advocates today that expanding access to quality preschool is a "moral imperative" and that she and other Senate colleagues plan to introduce a comprehensive bill that would align with Obama administration priorities. Murray, a Democrat, is the chairwoman of the Senate Budget Committee. But her remarks, which are embedded in the video below, mixed policy discussion with personal anecdotes. At a meeting in Spokane, Murray said that the local sheriff, Ozzie Knezovich, spoke of how he was a "Head Start kid." Murray said her own political career began when she learned her children's preschool program was going to be shuttered. "One legislator in particular told me I was just a mom in tennis shoes—and I had no chance of changing things." But parents lobbied and were able to successfully save the program, where Murray ended up teaching before running for the local school board. Murray's speech, which was hosted by the Center for American Progress, was part of a continuing effort on the part of early-childhood education supporters to provide traction for the Obama administration's $75 billion proposal to bolster state preschool programs.

- Ed Week

Russ Bowen

The fallout from the Skagit River Bridge collapse will head to the nation's capital on Thursday when Sen. Patty Murray brings up the issue of America's crumbling infrastructure. As work continues on a temporary span to get the Skagit River Bridge reopened to traffic, there's also a sense of urgency in Washington D.C. Murray called a Thursday hearing to asses America's infrastructure challenges and the safety issues they bring.

- KOMO

Hal Bernton

Several provisions of a bill to combat military sexual assault introduced by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wa and Sen. Kelly Ayotte R-NH, have been included in legislation under consideration by the Senate Armed Services Committee. They include a measure to provide victims of sexual assault with a special victims counsel — a military lawyer who would assist sexual-assault victims throughout the legal process. Another provision would help improve the tracking of military sexual-assault statistics.

- Seattle Times

Liz Jones

Senator Patty Murray laid out her priorities for immigration reform Wednesday on the floor of the U.S Senate. Her comments come as the Senate begins debate on a landmark immigration bill.

The Democratic congresswoman said she sees the effects of a broken immigration system across her home state of Washington.

“I see it in rural parts of my state. Cities like Yakima and Moses Lake, where farmers can’t get the seasonal AG workers they need to support one of our state’s largest industries," Murray says. "I see it in big cities like Seattle, and Vancouver and Spokane, where high-tech businesses struggle to hire the world’s best and brightest.”

Murray also called for immigration changes that would keep more families together, including same-sex partners. In the U.S, marriage-based citizenship is not an option for gay couples.

The reform bill sets out a 13-year journey to citizenship for some 11 million immigrants who are in the country illegally. But that citizenship process would only begin after certain border security goals are met.

Some Republican Senators argue that the bill’s provisions to secure the border are still too weak.

President Barack Obama has urged Congress to pass an immigration reform bill by the end of the summer.

Listen

- Northwest Public Radio

David Sarasohn

Not listening in the taut senatorial style of waiting for an opening to talk, but actually listening, quietly and intently, as if the mother telling Murray how the sequester would endanger her son’s health care might provide the key to persuading the entire U.S. Senate. Lakewood, just southeast of Tacoma, lives in the shadow of the massive (six freeway exits) Joint Base Lewis-McChord, and shutdowns and furloughs created by what people here call “the other Washington” have put everyone in this fire station meeting room on edge.

- The Nation

Patty in the News

Jul 04 2013

Susan Davis

Jul 02 2013

Katherine Long

Jul 01 2013

Jun 27 2013

David Lightman

Jun 26 2013

Joel Connelly

Jun 25 2013

Christina Samuels

Jun 12 2013

Russ Bowen

Jun 12 2013

Hal Bernton

Jun 12 2013

Liz Jones

With a two-seat gain while chair of the DSCC and a successful effort to get a budget through the Senate under her belt, Patty Murray has become a major force in the Senate.

Jun 04 2013

David Sarasohn

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