SIMPLY: THANK YOU
At this time when our country remains politically divided, still reeling from election results
regardless of party, and with concerns versus eager anticipation for our future, it's time to praise and thank a woman who works tirelessly for us, regardless of party. We often sit in Eastern Washington, complaining that elected officials don't recognize or understand our needs and feel our tax dollar goes toward supporting Western Washington.
And yet: On Oct. 2, it was announced that Sen. Patty Murray obtained a $5,048,619 grant for our local OIC for job retraining, with a previous grant she obtained in 2014 of $5 million for the same purpose. These grants were authorized through the bipartisan "Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA)," which Patty authored and helped pass in 2014. In 2024 she also secured an additional $2.9 billion, nationally, in workforce training and development through grants and $285 million for registered apprenticeships. She was able to secure the same for 2025.
She has been a tireless advocate to maintain availability of VA medical care in Eastern
Washington, but with services, accessibility and record-keeping that maintain accuracy,
privacy and are in keeping with standard practices. This has been an ongoing battle for the past 10 years.
Sept 2022 After the pandemic, Patty Murray, as Chair of the Senate Appropriations
Subcommittee on Labor, Health & Human Services, Education obtained $1million in funding to ESD 105 in Yakima for student mental health services and was able to expand funding for substance abuse and other mental health services. (Of note is the recent Yakima Herald-Republic article on the decline of drug abuse in Yakima.)
Starting in 2005, with additional funding in 2018 ($8 million) and again in 2024 ($115 million), she has secured billions of dollars in funding to refurbish our Eastern Washington rail system to include the rails, cars, bridges to a system that transports grain/produce to the rest of the world.
This year, again through her Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, she was able to secure $10 million to help restore and improve salmon habitat on this side of the mountains.
She also obtained funding for Yakima to lessen what is known as the digital divide.
Certainly, many of her local achievements have been omitted. Patty doesn't toot her own horn. She quietly goes about her business -- bipartisan business -- with success. One can only hope that our newly elected officials (both state and national) will do the same. Look beyond what she has done for Eastern Washington and the state. What she has accomplished on a national level is outstanding and we are also recipients of these measures.
In case anyone hasn't noticed, "thank you."
NANCY MALLAHAN
Yakima