Omnibus Spending Bill Heads for the House

The Senate passed an enormous omnibus spending bill consisting of over 4,000 pages and obligating $1.7 trillion. Earlier threats to the bill – like Sen. Mike Lee’s (R-UT) amendment on Title 42 – were overcome Thursday afternoon, and the chamber voted 68-29 to pass it on to the House of Representatives with just one day to spare in the legislative year. But can the gargantuan funding package pass muster in the lower chamber?

Omnibus Spending Bill Sails Through Congress

The bill is about 4,155 pages long, which means reading it would be like consuming Alexandre Dumas’ Count of Monte Cristo more than three times in a row. Republican legislators have complained about the last-minute introduction of such a massive piece of legislation. GOP Reps. Dan Bishop (NC) and Chip Roy (TX) railed against the proposal, picking apart some of its more absurd elements.

In a lengthy Twitter thread, Bishop noted that the measure would include $410 million to bolster border security for Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, and Oman while almost completely ignoring America’s ongoing immigration woes. It also featured $65 million to help preserve the salmon population, which should make seafood lovers happy.

Bishop also uncovered a more troubling aspect of the omnibus spending bill: $575 million to go towards “family planning” in places where population growth “threatens biodiversity,” which is a fancy way of saying there are too many humans being born so the United States must provide funding to curb that trend. “Malthusianism is a disturbing, anti-human ideology that should have ZERO place in any federal program,” Bishop wrote.

In another move that has infuriated Republicans, the measure would also allocate $3.6 million for the “Michelle Obama Trail,” which is an area near Georgia State University where people can go hiking and get in touch with nature as the federal government continues to waste their hard-earned cash.

Of course, we would be remiss to neglect another massive aid package for Ukraine as it continues its effort to repel Russian military aggression. The spending package includes a whopping $45 billion in emergency assistance to Ukraine, which would be the biggest amount of funding the US has sent to the country since the war started.

Rep. Roy also posted a thread highlighting the bill’s proposed expenditures that would go towards “woke pet projects” favored by the likes of Democrat New York Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Hakeem Jeffries. These include $105,000 for a “mentoring program for LGBTQ youth” in Pittsburgh and $1,000,000 for Zora’s House, which is a “coworking and community space built by and for women and gender expansive people of color” in Ohio.

This is but a small sampling of the woke causes to which funding would be allocated. The lawmaker listed over 50 individual line items to go towards the cause of wokeism. At the end of his thread, Roy declared that he, along with 30 of his colleagues, “intend to block the policy priorities of ANY Senator who votes for this omnibus bill.”

Will It Pass?

Kevin McCarthy (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

As the deadline draws nearer, Congress is under the gun, so to speak. Some Republican lawmakers have put up a fight against many of the provisions in the proposal. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) even went so far as to offer a rare criticism of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) for even agreeing to engage with Democrats on the bill before the GOP retakes the lower chamber next year. He signaled support for Roy and other lawmakers pledging to scuttle any legislation introduced by senators who vote for this spending package.

In the Senate, Mike Lee (R-UT) demanded an up and down vote on his amendment, which would have extended implementation of Title 42, a program making it easier for authorities to turn away or deport migrants attempting to gain asylum in the United States. “They’re denying Sen. Lee a vote on the Title 42 extension,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told reporters. “I don’t think there’s any Republican that would vote for cloture unless Mike gets a vote.” In the end, Democrat Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona saved the omnibus spending bill by introducing an amendment of her own that also extends Title 42, but in a way more palatable to Democrats. Both amendments got their votes, and both failed.

A total of 18 Republicans signed on to the legislation, drawing the ire of Rep. McCarthy and his allies in the House GOP. The Speaker of the House hopeful likely has little power to kill any legislation later proposed by the 14 of those Republicans who will still be in office next year, as the Democrats continue to hold the Senate, and it’s unlikely many if any such bills would make it to the House anyway. The House will have to vote on the omnibus spending bill today, December 23, and a simple majority of Democrats without any help from the Republicans can – and likely will – see this legislation sent on to the president for signing.