Appropriations

One of Congress’s most fundamental constitutional duties is to appropriate government funds, allocating money annually for everything from the national defense to interstate roads and bridges to food assistance for low-income seniors. As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, I intend to fight for the priorities that are most important for our state, and I want to hear directly from you about what those should be.

My office accepts two types of appropriations requests: programmatic requests and Congressionally Directed Spending requests. Programmatic requests are requests for Congress to fund an authorized federal program at a specific level or to include language directing a federal agency to implement a program in a specific way. Congressionally Directed Spending requests are requests to fund a specific project or organization. For example, increasing funding for Amtrak would be a programmatic request, while providing funding for a specific rail project in your town would be a Congressionally Directed Spending request.

Due to the spending constraints of the federal budget, Congress will not be able to fund all of the programmatic or Congressionally Directed Spending requests that I think are worthy, but your feedback will be crucial in helping me decide what to fight for. I’m here to be your voice in Washington and I want to hear from you about how Congress should allocate federal dollars.

Congressionally Directed Spending Requests
Fiscal Year 2026 Congressionally Directed Spending (CDS) applications are now open. Applications will close at 11:59PM on Sunday, April 27th. To apply, please select the appropriate subcommittee below and complete the application.

Agriculture
Commerce, Justice, and Science 
Energy and Water Development
Financial Services and General Government
Labor, Health and Human Services, and Related Agencies
Homeland Security
Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development
Interior and Environment

A guide to Congressionally Directed Spending can be found here. If you have questions about CDS, please contact appropriations_requests@murphy.senate.gov.

Programmatic Funding Requests
(NOTE: Only fill out these forms if you are requesting money for a federal program. Do NOT use these forms if you are requesting funding specifically for an organization or town.)

To submit an FY26 non-defense appropriations request, please complete our FY26 Appropriations Request Application.

To submit an FY26 defense appropriations requests, please complete ourFY26 Defense Appropriations Request Application. While you may submit a defense request before the FY26 President’s Budget Request is released, we ask that you resubmit with updated information after the Budget is released – and email bowen_peard@murphy.senate.gov to confirm these updates.

To find an example request form for all agencies EXCEPT the Department of Defense, click here. 
To find an example programmatic appropriations request for the Department of Defense, click here.

Wins for Connecticut
Bringing funding back to Connecticut is the main reasons I joined the Senate Appropriations Committee. And in the past years we’ve had some major successes. In the past two years,  I secured $380 million in Congressionally Directed Spending to support Connecticut organizations. In addition, we have increased funding for Long Island Sound, rail projects, defense manufacturing, education and health programs across Connecticut. For more information on these wins for Connecticut, visit the CT Fund Finder.

As part of the Congressionally Directed Spending process, my office is required to disclose all the requests I submit to the Appropriations Committee. My requests are available below: