Congressional leaders dropped the $1.7 trillion, 4,155-page omnibus spending bill yesterday and are rushing to pass the mammoth legislation to “fund” the government before the midnight deadline Friday.
In addition to increasing the skyrocketing national debt, interest rates, economic instability, and woke ideology, HR 2617 includes $575,000 “for family planning/reproductive health, including in areas where population growth threatens biodiversity or endangered species” and $11 million earmarked for LGBT-themed special interest projects. Also included is $300,000,000 for the “development and purchase of vaccine, antivirals, necessary medical supplies, diagnostics, and other ‘surveillance tools.’” In addition, $15.2 million is included for a “Vaccine Injury Compensation Program Trust Fund.”
There is also $9.2 billion for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, $47.5 billion for the National Institutes of Health, $1.5 billion for Biden’s efforts to fight cancer, and $950 million for the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. The bill includes $44.9 billion in emergency assistance to Ukraine and NATO allies and $40.6 billion to assist communities across the country recovering from drought, hurricanes, flooding, wildfire, natural disasters and other matters. The omnibus includes $772.5 billion for non-defense discretionary programs, including $118.7 billion – a 22 percent increase – for VA medical care, and $858 billion in defense funding. The bill would provide the military $858 billion this fiscal year, a nearly 10 percent increase over current levels, and a 4.6 percent raise for service members and Pentagon employees.
This spending bill not only furthers inflation and the national debt in America but essentially keeps Pelosi in charge of Congress by handcuffing the budget of the incoming House majority for the next year.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy released the spending bill yesterday and outgoing Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chair Richard Shelby slipped in $656 million worth of earmarks. Both senators who are retiring this year, have served a combined 84 years in the Senate, leaving generations to pay for this mammoth government tab.
A group of 13 House Republican members have pledged to block “any legislative priority” of Republican Senators who vote for the massive omnibus spending package. In a letter which includes signatures by Representatives Chip Roy and Byron Donalds, and some newly-elected members who will assume office in the next session such as Anna Paulina Luna and Eli Crane, they stated, “We are obliged to inform you that if any omnibus passes in the remaining days of this Congress, we will oppose and whip opposition to any legislative priority of those senators who vote for this bill including the Republican leader.”
“We will oppose any rule, any consent request, suspension voice vote, or roll call vote of any such Senate bill, and will otherwise do anything in our power to thwart even the smallest legislative or policy efforts of those senators….The American people did not elect us–any of us–to continue the status quo in Washington, as this bill will undoubtedly do. They didn’t elect us to borrow and spend more money we do not have as interest rates skyrocket in response to government spending-fueled inflation, eating away at the livelihoods of Americans. They didn’t elect us to increase spending or even continue spending at current levels as higher interest payments consume an increasing percentage of our budget, and our $31 trillion national debt eclipses the size of our economy.”
“Senate Republicans have the 41 votes necessary to stop this and should do so now and show the Americans who elected you that they weren’t wrong in doing so,” the letter read.
