Sen. Patty Murray secures $190 million for Howard Hanson Dam project

Published 11:30 am Friday, January 23, 2026

U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, spoke at a press conference downstream of the Howard Hanson Dam on Tuesday, Jan. 20, to celebrate the $190 million in federal dollars she secured in January for a critical water storage and fish passage project at Howard Hanson Dam.

The goal of the project is to reduce flood risk, address fish passage, and ensure long-term water reliability for more than one million people in the region, including in Tacoma and Covington.

Murray, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the funding answers action the Trump administration took in 2025 that zeroed out funding for the Howard Hanson Dam and stripped Army Corps construction dollars from blue states, including Washington, Instead, the Trump administration directed the funds to red states.

“Donald Trump and Russel Vought (chairman of the United States Office of Management and Budget) came in and took a wrecking ball to that project,” Murray said. “They announced a brazen, partisan plan to blatantly rob the state, and completely politicize federal funding for crucial Army Corps projects. And part of that scheme was to completely zero out Howard Hanson Dam funding, one of the most blatant acts pf political thuggery I have seen from an American president in my time in the Senate.”

Overall, Senator Murray said, she secured $412.5 million for Army Corps of Engineer’s projects and $80.955 million for Bureau of Reclamation projects across Washington state in the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill for fiscal year 2026.

Murray secured the funding in the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill for fiscal year 2026 she negotiated. The legislation passed through the Senate on Thursday after passing the House, and is expected to be signed into law soon.

Specifically, Senator Murray secure $190 million in congressionally- directed spending for construction at Howard Hanson Dam, alongside language in the bill that will allow the Army Corps of Engineers to incrementally fund the Howard Hanson Dam project by modifying the existing design and construction contract within 60 days of this bill’s enactment.

While the project originally needed $500 million to move forward with construction, the bill’s language allows the Corps to get the project back on track with this award.

Senator Murray—who fought to prevent the Republican bill from passing in the first place called out the Trump administration’s “corrupt BS,” making the case to her Republican colleagues that Congress must work together to prevent such a thing from happening again.