The U.S. House of Representatives approved a “minibus” spending package of six spending bills Wednesday by a 339-85 vote in hopes of preventing a partial government shutdown on Friday.
207 Democrats and 132 Republicans voted in favor of the measure.
The $450 billion package pushed by Speaker Mike Johnson includes the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Interior, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, Justice, Commerce and Energy.
The package was passed without the help of U.S. Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Hoover) who said it doesn’t go far enough in cutting spending.
“Voting on two different days does not change the fact that Congress is considering the first half of an omnibus bill,” Palmer said. “Congress has repeatedly ignored the debt crisis, the immigration crisis, and a host of other problems in exchange for temporary funding bills.
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“Now, we are given a set of appropriation bills negotiated by only a handful of members,” he added. “These bills lack important policy changes and are devoid of necessary constraints on spending at a time when our national debt is over $34 trillion.
“I made a commitment to vote for sound policy and to reduce wasteful government spending. Unfortunately, this bill misses the mark. We must change the process and commit to doing the hard work to get appropriations done and avoid forced votes on bad bills.”
Voting on two different days does not change the fact that Congress is considering the first half of an omnibus bill. Congress has repeatedly ignored the debt crisis, the immigration crisis, and a host of other problems in exchange for temporary funding bills.
— Gary Palmer (@USRepGaryPalmer) March 6, 2024
U.S. Rep. Barry Moore (R-Enterprise) also voted against the spending “monstrosity.”
“House Republicans secured massive wins for the American people in the seven appropriations bills we passed, including spending cuts to rein in our ballooning national debt,” Moore said in a statement. “This minibus monstrosity gives away those victories and includes no funding to end the chaos at our southern border. If we’re going to secure the border and get our spending under control, we must stop handing victories to Schumer and Biden.”
Today, we are voting on a #SwampOmnibus that sends $12.6 BILLION of your hard-earned tax dollars to fund special projects, universities, and trust funds while we are $34 trillion in debt.
I am a NO.
— Rep. Barry Moore (@RepBarryMoore) March 6, 2024
The package now head to the Senate for final approval. Congress also needs to pass a second batch of spending bills by March 22 to avert a partial government shutdown.
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee
