Washington, D.C.—Today, U.S. Rep. John Rose (TN-6) voted “No” on the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022.
The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022 is this year’s primary funding legislation for the federal government’s 15 executive departments, including the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Energy, State, etc., as well as additional projects like military construction, water development, and more. If done properly, the Appropriations Committee introduces 12 separate bills that all Members of Congress are allowed to debate and on which they vote in September before the beginning of the Fiscal Year on October 1st. But Congressional Democrats have been unable to come to an agreement within their own party on funding levels and other details until now – over five months into Fiscal Year 2022.
Additionally, Members of Congress are typically allowed to offer amendments to the legislation and debate each bill’s specifics before conducting a vote. This time around, the final bill text, which totals 2741 pages and has a total cost of $1.5 trillion, was not released until 12:25 AM CT today—the same day the House of Representatives was expected to vote on the bill. After numerous delays, Democrats chose to eventually rush the bill to the floor, skirting the normal process that allows for committee hearings to properly vet the legislation. It appears they rushed the process so they can attend their Democratic Issues Conference in Philadelphia scheduled for Wednesday through Friday, an extravagant event held each year, typically with celebrity guest speakers and lavish entertainment options.
This legislation increases overall spending by 6%. It seems there are also zero meaningful, positive changes to the Biden Administration’s U.S. oil and gas restrictions that have raised gas prices, zero easing of onerous COVID vaccine mandates, and zero significant improvements to President Biden’s dangerous and unacceptable open border policies. Additionally, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) receives a $675 million increase in annual funding to aid President Biden’s effort to add 87,000 IRS agents to go after more everyday Tennesseans and small businesses.
U.S. Representative John Rose released the following statement:
“Democrats seem to have no concerns with introducing and passing legislation late at night that spends approximately a trillion and a half dollars at the expense of hard-working Tennessee taxpayers. Tragically, Members of Congress were given less than 24 hours to read and begin voting on a 2741-page bill, making it virtually impossible to read and process before the vote. This is not the proper way to pass legislation, especially given the massive $1.5 trillion cost and the significance of the policy changes made. Although I am supportive of our efforts to assist with Ukraine’s fight against Vladimir Putin, including that provision in this general government funding bill is not good governance, and I could not—in good conscience—reward this behavior. Today, the federal government got even bigger, and once again, ‘We the People’ got smaller. I will not stand idly by and watch this happen. Even though we common-sense conservatives are outnumbered in the House, you can count on me to put up a fight on behalf of Tennesseans every time they do something like this, and to do my best to be a Tennessee voice of reason, even as so many congressional lawmakers from other parts of the country seem to have no reasonable sense of reality whatsoever.”
Original source can be found here.
