Democrats Stop A Gop Plan To Freeze Federal Spending Until 2023. On Tuesday, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Democrat Patrick Leahy of Vermont, voted against a proposal to adopt a continuing resolution that would have virtually frozen federal spending until 2023, when Republicans will control the House.
Leahy raised an objection to a request for unanimous agreement to forward the GOP proposal because Democrats opposed the initiative that was brought up by a group of conservative Senators led by Senators Mike Lee (R-Utah), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), and Ted Cruz (R-Texas).
The Republicans have been advocating for Congress to approve a stop-gap spending measure that will remain in effect until 2023 rather than an end-of-year omnibus bill that would enhance the levels of discretionary expenditure for both defense and non-defense purposes.
Regarding that omnibus proposal, Democrats and Republicans are continuing their negotiations with one another. When a party loses control of the House, as Democrats did last month, the tradition, according to Lee’s contention, has been in recent times to postpone major spending decisions until a new Congress is seated.
He stated that there had been a total of only five changes in the party that was in control of the House of Representatives since 1954. “Since 1954, the party that has controlled the House of Representatives has changed just five times,” he claimed. On the floor of the Senate, Lee made the following statement in response to a question: “And [in] exactly zero of those times did Congress come back after that election and during a lame-duck session implement sweeping comprehensive spending legislation.”
After that, Obama requested the Senate to unanimously pass a stop-gap bill that would finance the government until February 3. He stated that this would allow the incoming Republican majority in the House of Representatives an opportunity to negotiate the size and priorities of the spending package.
He stated that acting in this manner would “ensure that we listen to the views of the people and that the incoming House majority gets the opportunity to make the spending decisions that are in the best interests of the American people.”
Leahy, on the other hand, took exception to the request and stated that it would result in a financial shortfall of $7.5 billion for the Department of Veterans Affairs medical care and would leave $76 billion for the national security “on the Republican cutting room floor.” In addition to this, he stated that the continuing resolution for the short period was “a failure for the American people” and a “dereliction of our sworn duty.”
After an objection was raised by Leahy, Scott took the floor and voiced his approval of Lee’s proposition. He criticized the omnibus spending bill for adding tens of billions of dollars to the national debt and derided it as the “Pelosi-Schumer spending bill,” referring to outgoing Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer. He said that the omnibus bill was a “Pelosi-Schumer spending bill” (D-N.Y.).
“We ought to be saying no to a large omnibus spending measure and instead approving the straightforward continuing resolution that is being proposed by my close friend, Senator Lee of Utah. “We should be doing this anyhow, but this gives a new Congress the ability to put up a true budget that’s balanced,” he said.
Over the GOP plan on a spending measure, Scott has butted heads with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), who is in favor of completing an omnibus bill before the end of the year.
Last month, he ran against Mitch McConnell for the position of Senate Republican Leader and earned 10 votes out of a possible 48.
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