KEY VOTE: "NO" ON $1.5 TRILLION OMNIBUS & SUPPLEMENTAL PACKAGE

The Senate will soon vote on a 2,741 page, $1.5 trillion omnibus spending package along with an attached $15.6 billion for “COVID relief” and $13.6 billion for aid to Ukraine. Senators will have had just a few short days to read through the entirety of the bill, which was crafted behind closed doors by only a handful of leaders. This rushed process in the name of meeting an artificial, self-imposed deadline is Congress at its worst, and once again has guaranteed a terrible product that will provide tens of billions of dollars in additional funding for the Biden administration to further fuel their wide array of self-created crises.

For the first time since 2011, federal appropriations are no longer subject to the modest limitations imposed by the Budget Control Act, and it shows. This $1.5 trillion spending package gives Senators, who have not had the time to read every provision, a false choice between keeping the lights on and supporting runaway spending. This package increases non-defense discretionary spending alone by $46 billion, or nearly 7% and finances it with deficit spending. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), that deficit could reach $1.153 trillion for fiscal year 2022, after hitting $3.003 trillion in fiscal year 2021. Rather than adding to the worsening inflation conditions, Congress should be looking for ways to reduce our $30 trillion debt.

The bill is loaded with the Biden administration’s radical progressive policies. It fails to reverse the COVID-19 emergency or the Biden administration’s vaccine mandates, as conservative leaders have called for, and instead adds even more emergency COVID-19 spending. It would increase annual funding for the IRS to $12.6 billion. It doubles down on the Green New Deal style government subsidies for green energy and climate policies, such as “a historic level of funding” for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). It also includes more than $4 billion in Congressionally Directed Spending, or earmarks, which were airdropped into the package without transparency or thorough vetting. Even though the Hyde Amendment is protected, taxpayer funds will still flow to Planned Parenthood through the $286 million in funding to the Title X program after the Biden Administration overturned former President Donald Trump’s Protect Life Rule. Even though Democrats have yet to get their Build Back Better package passed, this omnibus would help them to deliver on one of BBB’s least popular provisions - the weaponization of the IRS - by providing the agency with its largest funding increase in two decades.

As if billions of dollars in wasteful spending wasn’t enough, the authors of the omnibus decided to include a flawed reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) for good measure. The new policies would redirect the focus of VAWA away from protecting women in the name of wokeness by including “gender identity” language in many of the program reauthorizations and emphasizing equity over equality. Even if Senators support this version of VAWA, its merits should be debated and voted on separately as opposed to jamming it into a must-pass funding bill.

Investments in our Army, Navy, and Air Force are needed given growing threats around the globe from China and after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. While some conservatives may choose to focus on small victories in this vein, such as the increase in total defense spending to $782 billion in FY 2022 and funding for Ukraine’s defense, these investments should not be held hostage by controversial non-defense policy and spending. The idea that there is parity in the importance of defense and non-defense discretionary spending is false and this talking point should be buried.

Senators and staff will have had just a few days to read 2,741 pages, account for $1.5 trillion in spending, and analyze its impact. The federal budgeting process remains broken and until it’s fixed, it will be impossible for Congress to get its fiscal house in order. Members should reject this boondoggle omnibus that will usher in historic levels of discretionary spending and Leftist policies.