Amid threats of a possible shutdown, Congress was forced to approve a bloated and unscrutinized $1.2 trillion budget in an early morning vote by the Senate.
The spending package was approved without undergoing proper scrutiny and amid an intense debate among lawmakers.
The House approved the bill on Friday with a 286-134 vote; 70 percent of the budget would go directly to defense.
Republican lawmakers criticized the latest package, pressing that the bill has few policy priorities while spending too much on aspects they deem unnecessary.
“The bottom line is that this is a complete and utter surrender,” said Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Missouri).
GOP representatives blasted questionable pork allotments on the spending package, particularly $1.5 billion on climate and environmental programs; $48.6 billion for the National Institute for Health; $200 million for the gender equity and equality action fund; and $500 million for Jordan border security.
House Freedom Caucus member Chip Roy (R-Texas), who opposed the bill, reasoned the committee only had 24 hours to review the bill. He also hit fellow GOPers for failing to secure wins on immigration funding.
“My Republican colleagues cannot go campaign against mass parole and use the name of Laken Riley, because you pass a bill in her name when you fund the very policies that lead to her death,” said Roy.
“Any of my Republican colleagues you want to spend this year campaigning against open borders—it’s a laugh. Because today, if you vote for this abomination of a bill, you will be voting to fund it. You will be voting to fund the very policies that you will campaign against.”
Lawmakers also hit the bill for funding border security in Middle Eastern countries while failing to allocate the budget to secure our borders against migrant invasions.
Chairman of the House Appropriations on Labor and Health and Human Services Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Alaska) said, “This is not the bill that my subcommittee produced and supported. The Senate has taken liberties with their Congressionally Directed Spending requests that would never stand in the House.”
“The House did not include these partisan funding projects in its Labor-HHS legislation. Based on these principles, the Senate shouldn’t either.”
“I have multiple concerns, among them are the many new social services that this bill would create for the millions of illegal immigrants streaming across our border. Additionally, it would fund facilities providing routine abortion services, including late-term abortions. The Senate must respect the work of the House. In good conscience, I cannot and will not vote for these projects or this bill.”
During deliberations, the Senate voted to block the inclusion of the Laken Riley Act in the Omnibus Spending Bill, which angered many conservative lawmakers.
Sen. Eric Schmitt remarked, “I voted no on this bloated budget monstrosity negotiated by a few in the shadows & jammed through.”
“We are $34T in debt. Our border is in shambles. Nothing was done to address either of these stark realities.”
Need to know which republicans voted for this bill so we can hopefully vote them out next time.
I would appreciate all the names and states of the house republicans that voted for this bill!
They should not be re-elected!
That bill just helps too control the people and encourages illegals to come here and take over our country plus take your land and homes away from you!
Better wake up now and vote these people out of office!
DEM$ $HUCK And jive; REPUBE$ CUCK And $hive US !