GOP Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), who recently broke with her party and voted against a resolution that would allow the U.S. military to kill suspected drug smugglers without trial (she cited concerns about the overreach of presidential power), says she understands why her colleagues across the aisle do not trust Republicans as they enter the third week of the federal government shutdown.
As seen below, in a video posted by CBS News digital journalist Cristina Corujo, Murkowski spoke about the difficulty facing Democrats trying to work with Republicans in good faith.
The Senator from Alaska said, “If you’re a Democrat, you’re looking at it and you say…Why am I going to try to be helpful if Mr. Vought at OMB is just going to do a back door move and rescind what we’ve been working on. So yeah, there’s a lack of trust.”
GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski says she understands why Dems are hesitant through the appropriations process.
“If you’re a Democrat, you’re looking at it and you say…Why am I going to try to be helpful if Mr. Vought at OMB is just going to do a back door move and rescind what we’ve… pic.twitter.com/nsebeUvAGq
— Cristina Corujo (@cristina_corujo) October 14, 2025
Murkowski added, “Does it make it harder to come to terms on hard things like a government shutdown? Absolutely.”
She added: “The appropriations process is being run over and that to me is absolutely unacceptable.”
On Friday, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought announced a promise to “keep those RIFs rolling throughout the shutdown,” referring to reduction-in-force notices agencies sent to fire government employees. Today, Vought said approximately 10,000 federal employees will be laid off.
Murkowski — who voted to confirm Vought as OMB Director — responded to Vought’s RIFs announcement: “While few details have been shared about Russell Vought’s latest layoffs, there is no question this is poorly timed and yet another example of this administration’s punitive actions toward the federal workforce. The termination of federal employees in a shutdown will further hurt hard-working Americans who have dedicated their lives to public service and jeopardize agency missions once we finally re-open the government.”