Omnibus Let Down

On Thursday, Congress passed a $1.3 trillion Omnibus spending bill just 36 hours after it was introduced.  No Member was able to read the over 2,200-page document in its entirety before the vote.  Yet, 256 House Members and 65 Senators voted in favor of it so that they could go home for their two-week recess. There are a litany of bad spending measures in this bill that Congress never allowed you to have a voice on. Here are some of the promises that were broken by Members last week:

• The Omnibus funds abortion clinics like Planned Parenthood. Every year, pro-lifers push for a defund of these atrocious clinics, but they are let down every time. Planned Parenthood receives about $500 million in taxpayer money every year and this bill continues that funding.
• The President’s budget proposed a decrease in the government’s data mining arm, the Institute for Education Sciences (IES). Congress did the complete opposite. They increased IES funding by $8 million and added that the funds could be used to link these statewide systems and further develop them.
• With the recent talk surrounding guns, Congress caved on allowing funding for invasive mental health measures. Now, $1.1 billion is funding evaluations that have been proven inaccurate. This could subject young students to medications and therapy that will be more harmful than helpful.
• Congress increased the funding for the failed Head Start program, Preschool Development Grants, and after-school programs. Liberals have used these programs to waste taxpayer money and indoctrinate children by psychologically profiling them and subjecting them to social-emotional learning.
• We can rejoice that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was not part of the budget.  However, the Omnibus allows the Department of Homeland Security to exceed the cap on H-2B Visas by allowing an additional 63,000 low-skilled immigrant workers. This nearly doubles the entire program and increases the chance of visa overstays.
• President Trump asked for $25 billion for border wall funding before the text was released.  Congress stripped that number down to $1.3 billion. This was the biggest reason that the President issued a veto threat.
• Further expanding the leftist agenda, Congress increased funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).  Each received a $3 million bump.  This comes after the NEA gave $35,000 in taxpayer money for a publication that exudes anti-straight and anti-white biases.

You do not have to look far in this bill to see that it defies Conservatism.  Not only is it wasting our hard-earned money, but it undermines family privacy, autonomy, and safety.  Eagle Forum will continue to push for better fiscal policies.