Biden Signs $1.65 Trillion Omnibus Bill from St. Croix
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President Biden on Thursday signed into law the massive $1.65 omnibus spending package, comprising 4,155 pages, from the island of St. Croix, where he is vacationing with his family for the holidays.
“Today, I signed the bipartisan omnibus bill, ending a year of historic progress. It’ll invest in medical research, safety, veteran health care, disaster recovery, VAWA funding — and gets crucial assistance to Ukraine,” he tweeted. “Looking forward to more in 2023.”
Although supported by nine House Republicans and 13 Senate Republicans, the legislation received intense criticism from many members of the GOP. They described it as a rushed measure crammed with wasteful spending by a lame-duck Democratic-dominated Congress that will add to the national debt and exacerbate inflation.
The funding in the bill, which averted a federal government shutdown before the new year, includes an allocation of $45 billion in defense assistance to Ukraine. Some Republican priorities, such as Electoral Count Act reform and a bigger military budget, were nested in with Democratic appropriations, such as increased funding for Medicaid and food stamps.
Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell praised the bill on the grounds that it represents a real decrease in discretionary spending. He presented it as a positive that nondefense spending jumped by only 5.5 percent, from $730 billion to $772.5 billion, amid an inflation rate of 7.1 percent.
“The bipartisan government-funding bill that Senators Shelby and Leahy have finished negotiating does exactly the opposite of what the Biden administration first proposed,” he said. “This bill provides a substantial real-dollar increase to the defense baseline . . . and a substantial real-dollar cut to the non-defense, non-veterans baseline,” McConnell insisted as negotiations were wrapping up.
House minority leader Kevin McCarthy stated his strong disapproval of the bill before it advanced, standing behind a letter from 13 House Republicans charging that it was reckless, irresponsible, and a “purposeful refusal to secure and defend our borders.” For example, it failed to incorporate protections for Title 42, the pandemic policy that allows illegal immigrants to be expelled on a public-health basis, which currently hangs in the balance at the Supreme Court.
The group also threatened an ultimatum, vowing to “oppose and whip opposition to any legislative priority of those senators who vote for this bill — including the Republican leader.”
Some GOP House members, such as Texas representative Chip Roy, said Congress had an obligation to put the brakes on major spending until the new GOP House majority can weigh in next session. Roy slammed McConnell for helping to ram through the bill at the “eleventh hour.” There were over 7,500 earmarks for special interests from the House and Senate, totaling $16 billion in 2023 appropriations.
