The U.S. House of Representatives approved the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill on Friday, overcoming Republican objections and keeping the military and federal government programs funded through September 2023.
Voting virtually entirely along party lines, the massive bill was passed with 225 votes in favor and 201 against. The bill will make its way to President Joe Biden’s desk shortly for his signature.
The House vote came just two days before Christmas, and a day after the Senate voted 68-29 to pass the legislation. Eighteen Senate Republicans voted for the bill, ignoring threats by a group of House Republicans that they would oppose their future legislative priorities.
Those House Republicans said the spending approved in the legislation is “absurd,” and they called the bill and “indefensible assault on the American people.” Republicans said the new spending would increase the national debt and worsen inflation.
Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader from California, called the bill a "monstrosity" written by retiring senators who face no accountability from voters, and "one of the most shameful acts I've ever seen in this body." He called Christmas the "season of giving," but said "in Congress, it appears the season of giving will line the pockets of Democrat special interests and stick hard-working Americans with the tab. That's what this omnibus does."
Congressman Chip Roy (R-Texas), said Friday that the bill was rushed and the price tag was too high. He offered amendments to the legislation, which were all rejected by Democratic leaders.
“We’re spending money we don’t have,” Roy said, accusing his colleagues of “destroying the United States of America, absolutely destroying this body.”
Before the end of Friday’s House session, Roy reiterated his reservations to the omnibus bill highlighting the wide-scale absence of Congressional representatives.
“I would note that this $1.7 trillion legislation is moving off the floor without a physical quorum present. There were 218 votes cast by proxy on the rule and 226 votes cast by proxy on the final passage of the bill,” Roy stated.
More than 200 House lawmakers were not present for Friday’s vote, and instead designated a colleague to vote for them by proxy. House rules approved during the Covid-19 pandemic allow members to cite the ongoing public health emergency to skip in-person votes.
Democrats painted the legislation as a necessary victory for the American people.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the omnibus bill "very, very important legislation" that funds the government and meets the need of the American people. Quoting from an English song about the "goose getting fat," Pelosi said, "yes, indeed, the goose is getting fat. We have a big bill here, because we have big needs for our country."
Pelosi said she intended to keep her last speech as speaker short, because, "members have planes to catch, gifts to wrap, toys to assemble, carols to sing, religious services to attend to."
Rep. James McGovern (D-Mass) said the option was to "do the job the American people elected us to do and vote for a bipartisan, bicameral bill, or we shut down the government two days before Christmas as a massive storm wreaks havoc on Americans' travel plans."
The omnibus package includes $858 billion in military spending, including nearly $50 billion earmarked for Ukraine’s war against Russia. On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed a joint session of Congress asking for bipartisan support as well as sophisticated Patriot anti-aircraft missiles to ward off Russia.
Earlier efforts by Republican senators, including Mike Lee of Utah, to incorporate Title 42 protections in the bill failed. Title 42 was a Trump-era policy continued under the Biden administration to stanch the flow of illegal immigrants at the southern border citing concerns about the spread of communicable diseases.
Arizona senator Kyrsten Sinema, who left the Democratic Party this month and is now an independent, argued in favor of preserving Title 42 amid fears that the border crisis has become unmanageable for states such as hers, as well as New Mexico and Texas.
“With the looming end of Title 42, we see an untenable crisis that's occurring in our border communities right now increasing to a level that is not sustainable," Sinema said in an interview Wednesday.
The omnibus also includes reforms to the Electoral Count Act, clarifying that the vice president doesn't have the power to overturn the results of a presidential election. In the lead-up to the January 6, riot at the U.S. Capitol, John Eastman, then-president Donald Trump's election law attorney, suggested that vice president Mike Pence could refuse to certify the election for Democrat Joe Biden.
The omnibus bill is over 4,000 pages long, drawing Florida’s Republican senator Rick Scott to joke that, “it’s three times the size of the Bible. It’s Democrats’ spending.”
Kentucky senator Rand Paul echoed Scott’s sentiments that the omnibus bill was a guise for a Democratic spending splurge, rhetorically asking his Twitter followers “I wonder how long it would take the clerk to read this?”
"The bill is so important to get done because it will be good for families, for veterans, our national security, even for the health of our democratic institutions," Democrat Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader from New York, said on Thursday.
The bill "keeps [the] government open and meets the needs of the American people," Pelosi said Thursday ahead of the House vote.
Nevertheless, some Republicans remain deeply frustrated with the bill, considering that Republicans will retake control of the House next month. Other House representatives including Scott Perry (R-Pen.), Steve Scalise (R-La.), and Tom Cole (R-Okla.) had earlier expressed their willingness to vote against ongoing negotiations of the bill last week that would have triggered a government shutdown. On Tuesday, Scalise called the current structure of the omnibus bill “designed to sideline the incoming Republican House Majority,” the Washington Post reported.
Another dissenting Republican house representative, Arizona’s Andy Biggs, tweeted Friday morning: “I'll be voting against this $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill in-person today. Many of my colleagues feel entitled to remain in the comfort of their homes. That's wrong. As Members of Congress, we must uphold our constitutional obligation to work in the nation's capital.”
Comments
Post a Comment