Senate Report Card: Patty Murray D-WA

Senator Patty Murray is the senior Democratic United States Senator from the state of Washington. She was the first woman to represent Washington in the Senate. She took office in 1992.

Senator Murray serves on the Appropriations, Budget, Health, Education, Labor and Pension, Rules and Administration and Veterans' Affairs Committees. She is the Chairman of the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Subcommittee. Murray is Chairman of the Employment and Workplace Safety Subcommittee.

Murray has been a long-time advocate for increased resources at the United States' Northern Border and worked to provide funding to triple the number of border.

She is a leading pro choice voice in Congress to protect a woman's right to choose and has sponsored efforts to make emergency contraceptives available in hospitals and to require insurance companies that cover Viagra to also cover contraception for women.

Senator Murray is a strong advocate for protecting the environment. She has increased funding for environmental programs, repeatedly opposed harmful, anti-environmental riders to appropriations bills and sponsored environmental legislation such as the Wild Sky Wilderness Act, which would protect 106,000 acres in Snohomish County, Washington.

Murray has also made access to health care a top priority. She has worked to increase payments to doctors to reverse the trends in Medicare. She wrote legislation to bring Medicare reimbursement rates for Washington state up to the national average. She has supported funding for rural health clinics and she co-sponsored the Nurse Reinvestment Act, which will help bring more nurses into the profession.

The senator has advocated for increases in highway funding to help alleviate the transportation problems facing Washington state and communities around the country. She convened Senate hearings on port security and cargo security, and co-authored the landmark SAFE Ports Act, which dramatically improved port and cargo security. She wrote the bill that increased the Coast Guard budget by 10 percent. She fought to make Mexican long-haul trucks comply with U.S. safety standards before being allowed to travel throughout this country.

Murray was one of 21 Democrats in the Senate to vote against the War Authoritization for invading Iraq. On the Senate floor she said, "We will win a war with Iraq decisively, and, God willing, we will win it quickly. But what happens after the war? That will have as big an impact on our future peace and security. Will we be obligated to rebuild Iraq? If so, how? Our economy is reeling, our budget is in deficit, and we have no estimate of the cost of rebuilding. And with whom? As New York Times columnist Tom Friedman points out, there's a retail store mentality that suggests to some - if "you break it, you buy it."

She is in favor or a troop pullout and reduction as well as timetables for the war.
Senator Patty Murray is up for reelection in 2011.