{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.murray.senate.gov/republican-shutdown-day-29-murray-responds-to-thune-on-the-senate-floor-shares-stories-of-american-families-seeing-devastating-premium-hikes-slams-republicans-for-ignoring-their-own-constituents/", "REPUBLICAN SHUTDOWN DAY 29: Murray Responds to Thune on the Senate Floor, Shares Stories of American Families Seeing Devastating Premium Hikes, Slams Republicans for Ignoring their Own Constituents", "2025-10-29", "2025", "2025-10", "Democrat", "Senate", "WA", "Patty Murray", "M001111", "www.murray.senate.gov", "murray", "https://www.murray.senate.gov/category/press-releases/", "scraper", "NEW FROM NEW YORK TIMES: Obamacare Prices Become Public, Highlighting Big Increases\n\nNEW FROM KFF: ACA Insurers Are Raising Premiums by an Estimated 26%, but Most Enrollees Could See Sharper Increases in What They Pay\n\n***WATCH: Senator Murray\u2019s full floor speech***\n\nWashington, D.C. \u2013 Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, spoke on the Senate floor\u2014responding directly to remarks from Majority Leader Thune\u2014on the twenty-ninth day of President Trump and Republicans\u2019 government shutdown, just three days before Open Enrollment begins this Saturday, November 1st.\n\nNationwide, 22 million Americans who buy health care through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces will see their health care costs skyrocket next year because of Republicans\u2019 refusal to extend the ACA enhanced premium tax credits that help Americans afford health insurance. Because of Republican inaction, premiums are more than doubling on average for people who buy health coverage on the exchanges, and these higher costs will push 4.8 million people off their health insurance coverage over the next decade.\n\nSenator Murray\u2019s remarks, as delivered, are below:\n\n\u201cI heard the Majority Leader just now say, \u2018They\u2019re not going to operate with a gun to their head.\u2019 I would say to the majority party that the gun to the head is to all of these people who are opening up their health care notices this week and finding out that their costs are skyrocketing.\n\n\u201cWhy? Because what the Republicans have said, and just said again, is that they want to talk about it. Talk about it is going to do absolutely nothing for those people who are getting those bills and those payments today.\n\n\u201cSo, I wanted to come to the floor today and talk about that. And I would say to my Republican colleagues, yeah, we all want to have bipartisan bills. We want to work on bipartisan appropriations. But what we have in front of us is a CR that is partisan. That says, \u2018Do it my way or the high way,\u2019 and doesn\u2019t discuss the priorities of the Democrats.\n\n\u201cWhen you are asking us for votes, when you are asking for Democratic votes, you can\u2019t just demand whatever you want and say if you don\u2019t do it, then we\u2019re going to sit here, which is what the Republicans have done. I would ask the Republican leader, as I\u2019ve done so many times, talk to the Democratic leader, bring the President in the room.\n\n\u201cI\u2019ve been here many, many times, when we have had to find a way out of a challenging situation, and you know who\u2019s always been at the table? The President, the Majority Leader, and the Speaker of the House and the Minority Leaders, on both sides of the aisle\u2014and that has not happened yet and that\u2019s why we are sitting where we are.\n\n\u201cWhere today my constituents, who are hurting, are saying to me, \u2018Where are the Republicans and why are they not talking to you about how we solve this issue?\u2019 The Majority Leader said, \u2018Well, there\u2019s problems with it, you know, it covers,\u2019\u2014they could have done this months ago, and they say, \u2018Oh, now we can open up the government and talk about it.\u2019\n\n\u201cWhat does \u2018talk about it\u2019 do to my constituents? Because, M. President, last week, window shopping for next year\u2019s health plans actually started in my home state, and this week, Open Enrollment begins nationwide.\n\n\u201cI am hearing from families in my state today who are panicked. Because while Republicans are refusing to act on this and just saying they are going to talk about it, their premiums, their families\u2019 premiums, are going through the roof, and their health coverage is slipping out of reach.\n\n\u201cThere are so many stories. I have talked with small business owners, I have talked with patients and I have talked with parents, and lifted up their concerns here on the Senate floor. And I am going to keep doing everything I can to shout out these stories from the rooftops.\n\n\u201cBecause right now Republicans are doing everything they can to ignore this, and to say, \u2018deal with it later.\u2019 And what is \u2018later\u2019? Well, \u2018later\u2019 never comes.\n\n\u201cWhy do I know that? Because we brought up this issue time and time again throughout the summer when the Republicans were giving away tax breaks to billionaires and saying, \u2018This is an issue that is confronting us.\u2019 And it was \u2018later\u2019 then, it\u2019s \u2018later\u2019 now, and \u2018later\u2019 is way too late.\n\n\u201cThere are many stories about this, M. President, too awful to ignore. There are millions of families facing absolutely catastrophic price increases. I\u2019ve heard from seniors whose premiums are increasing eight-fold!\n\n\u201cSo, M. President, in order to make clear the scope and scale of the problem Republicans want to ignore and talk about later, I thought I would share a list\u2014just the toplines!\u2014of what I am hearing from constituents about how their health care costs are going to skyrocket. And if Republicans refuse to work with us and even talk to us about this issue and help us find a solution so we can all move on by saving the health care tax credits, I\u2019m going to share some of those stories today.\n\n\u201cThere is Kathleen. She lives in Bellingham. Now, if Republicans refuse to act, she is going to see her monthly premium triple.\n\n\u201cSharon, Thurston County in my state. If Republicans refuse to act, her premium is going to double, increasing by over $100 a month. And we are just getting started, because if Republicans refuse to act, Nanette, in Tumwater, and Stacya, in Seattle, will see their premiums increase by $400 a month. Not a year, a month.\n\n\u201cIf Republicans refuse to act, Leslie\u2019s husband in Brewster is going to see his premium increase by $780 a month. Tom will see his premium increase by over $800 a month. Jennifer will see her premium go up by at least $890 a month.\n\n\u201cAnd I have to emphasize\u2014we are talking about families, seniors, small businesses owners. People who cannot afford that kind of increase.\n\n\u201cAnd yet, if Republicans refuse to act, Jason in Seattle will see his premium increase by over $900 a month. Maya in Woodinville, $1,000 a month. I can\u2019t even imagine that!\n\n\u201cBut if you think that is outrageous? Well, Republicans don\u2019t think it\u2019s worth talking about! Or talking about it later, when it\u2019s way too late. Or pretending that they\u2019re going to do something about it, but not really.\n\n\u201cTalk about a gun to their head! If we do not act, Diane in Wenatchee is going to see her premium increase by over fourteen hundred dollars a month. Leighann? Told me fifteen hundred dollars a month, her premium will increase.\n\n\u201cTerry will see his premium increase by nearly sixteen hundred dollars a month. And the Banergee family? Told me they will see their premium go up by more than sixteen hundred dollars. Every. Single. Month. The Republican plan? Talk about it. Do nothing.\n\n\u201cM. President, for all of us who have been here, we\u2019ve been waiting for the plan and have never seen it. Never seen it. It\u2019s always just a \u2018plan.\u2019\n\n\u201cRebecca, in Seattle, will see her premium increase by more than seventeen hundred dollars a month. And by the way, that plan is not in writing, it\u2019s in somebody\u2019s head that has never been told to anybody. So, what do we have here today? Republican silence.\n\n\u201cJames and his wife are going to see their premium go up by a completely unreasonable eighteen hundred dollars a month. Damian said his are going to go up $2,000 a month. Why? Because Republicans are refusing to act. That is who we are fighting for here today!\n\n\u201cNow, I could go on, and on, but those cases I just told you about all came from Washington state. This is a drop in the bucket.\n\n\u201cThere are several million more examples just like this in red states across the country. Bob in Idaho will see his premium jump by nearly $1,900 a month. Nancy in Florida, $1000 more a month. Cheri in Tennessee will see her monthly costs go from $10 to $1140.\n\n\u201cI mean, we could do this all day\u2014and yet Republicans can\u2019t be bothered to do it at all!? These are their constituents! 4 million people in Texas rely on these tax credits Republicans don\u2019t want to save. Over four million in Florida.\n\n\u201cAnd the increases they are going to face? It\u2019s unthinkable. In five states\u2014all red states\u2014families who rely on these tax credits are going to see prices more than quadruple. That is on average.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s unthinkable, it\u2019s unconscionable, and totally untethered from reality for Republican leaders to think they can just ignore this tsunami of a price hike.\n\n\u201cSo, I say to my Republican friends: you\u2019ve got to get your heads out of the sand. This is a real problem for families. Later is way too late, and I don\u2019t think it exists.\n\n\u201cM. President, the Majority Leader just said that families don\u2019t know that they get this. Is there something wrong with that? They find out that their health care, that they are being helped by their neighbors and their friends and the people in this country that think it\u2019s important for all of us that our health care premiums are lower?\n\n\u201cI would say to my Republican colleagues, listen to your constituents. It\u2019s their health. It\u2019s their lives. They are telling you that. They want action.\n\n\u201cOpen enrollment for this country starts Saturday. The time to act is now. So, I hope they start listening\u2014please, join us at a negotiating table, not out here on the floor just throwing things around\u2014join us! The Majority Leader can call the Minority Leader, and the President, and get them in the room which is what we always do when we have a challenge in front of us!\n\n\u201cAnd that has not happened. And that is unconscionable. Because people in this country are hurting.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:32:54Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.murray.senate.gov/republican-shutdown-day-29-murray-responds-to-thune-on-the-senate-floor-shares-stories-of-american-families-seeing-devastating-premium-hikes-slams-republicans-for-ignoring-their-own-constituents/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 3.1746220774948597, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}