Outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has issued an ultimatum to House and Senate negotiators of the year-end omnibus bill that either they “reach a solution” or else the House will “have no choice” but to just pass the same omnibus bill they passed last year via a year-long continuing resolution until Sept. 30, 2023, effectively freezing federal spending.
For the Senate to ram through another spending bill, which would fund the entirety of the Pelosi-Schumer spending agenda through most of next year, would utterly disempower the new Republican House from enacting our shared priorities.
Locking the new Congress into yet another year of Democrat policies would flout the will of the voters and prevent the incoming Republican majority in the House of Representatives and the newly elected Republican Senators from moderating the reckless policy agenda of the last two years. Moreover, adding an increase or suspension of the debt ceiling for another year would issue Democrats a blank check and inevitably add trillions more to our crushing national debt.
So many things messed up with OMNIBUS:
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) December 13, 2022
1) Should be separate bills!
2) Constitutionally required to originate in the House.
3) Bills were due on Sept 30th.
4) Staff is writing OMNIBUS. A tiny minority of legislators are looped in. https://t.co/5sFfKD5w7t
The precedent is clear. In modern American history, no Congress has passed an omnibus appropriations bill during a lame-duck session following a shift in power in the House. To do so this year would be a violation of congressional precedent and a finger in the eye to the millions of Americans who voted for new leadership in the House.
In a day and age where the integrity of our institutions is continually under scrutiny, honoring the will of the people and the historical precedent of Congress should be a priority.