House Democrat Rep. Murphy says she'll vote against provisions in $3.5 trillion package

Florida congresswoman Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.) indicated on Thursday that she is planning to vote against the provisions currently under consideration during the House Ways and Means Committee's markup session of parts of the massive $3.5 trillion spending package. 

Her concern, she says, is with the legislative process. "Process matters, because I want my constituents to have faith in what I'm doing," said the freshman rep.

Though she supports many of the proposals in the massive spending package, and understands that Democrats will likely have to pass policy measures along party-lines, she takes issue with the fact that only some of the proposals expected to be considered in the markup have been released. In particular, the powerful committee has not yet released proposals on prescription drugs, clean energy incentives, and tax increases. Murphy also notes that the Congressional Budget Office has yet to deliver a score for most of the proposals in the package. 

"Despite this committee's extraordinary efforts, I find myself in an impossible situation," she said, adding that she will vote no unless "something changes."

Murphy is directing blame at congressional leadership for conjuring the "artificial deadline" of September 15, by which committees need to be done with their markups of the spending package. The rushed deadline, she says, was "rushed" and "driven by politics, rather than policy."

The congresswoman says she plans to continue working on the package to get it to a place "where I can support it, where it can pass both chambers, and where it can be signed by the president." 

Murphy was also one of a number of moderate House Democrats who backed advancing the $1.2 trillion so-called bipartisan infrastructure bill before taking up the cause of the $3.5 trillion budget package.