"NO" on Omnibus Appropriations Measure
"NO" on Omnibus Appropriations Measure
Today, the House and Senate will vote on a massive nine-bill appropriations package. The Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2012 (H.R. 2055), or omnibus, would fund the government for the remainder of fiscal year 2012. At an annualized level, it spends a total of $915 billion.
The omnibus uses virtually all the room under the budget caps established by the now-discredited Budget Control Act (BCA), and will be packaged with an $8.6 billion in "disaster" spending (H.R. 3672). If the disaster funding offsets (H.CON.RES. 94)—a 1.83-percent across-the-board reduction in everything except Defense, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs—are not passed and maintained, it would push the total FY12 discretionary spending figure to $1.051 trillion - $1 billion more than 2011 and $31.6 billion more than the House-passed Ryan budget, which proposed sweeping changes that would set our nation on a more sustainable and prosperous course.
Earlier this year, the House took important steps to rein in job-destroying regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Communications Commission, Department of Health and Human Services, National Labor Relations Board and many others. The omnibus falls far short of advancing those policies, and allows the continued implementation of Obamacare and the continued subsidization of America's energy industry. In addition to failing to prevent bad policies, the omnibus does little to advance important conservative priorities on issues such as defunding Planned Parenthood.
Finally, the process for the omnibus was flawed, closely resembling practices we've become accustomed to before last year's election. The inability to amend or thoroughly debate a $915 billion spending measure that was drafted behind closed doors inevitably leads to a "pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it" moment.
The bottom line: spending is too high, the policies are wrong and the process was flawed.
Heritage Action opposes the omnibus appropriations measure (H.R. 2055) and will include it as a key vote on our scorecard.
Related:
Heritage Action's Scorecard
Heritage: Mega-Omni: Another Get-Out-of-Town Budget Debacle
Key Vote: "YES" on Ryan Budget
National Journal: Derailing the Ryan Express?
Key Vote Alert: "NO" on Minibus Appropriations Measure
"NO" on Omnibus Appropriations Measure