An unidentified GOP source told Fox News Tuesday that "All hell is breaking loose" in the Senate over a 1,924-page spending bill that includes 20,000 earmark requests.
Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Jim DeMint (R-SC) will likely demand the omnibus bill be read in its entirety on the Senate floor prior to a vote.
Fox News reported the bill - described as "a total mess" - is intended to cover the rest of the current fiscal year. If passed, the bill would become law without any debate in the Senate.
Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI), Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the bill must pass:
"The twelve bills included in this package fulfill the Congress' most basic responsibility, to exercise the power of the purse," he said in a statement. "This measure reflects a year's worth of work by members of both parties. Together, we have closely scrutinized the president's budget request, held hundreds of hearings, thousands of meetings, and asked literally tens of thousands of questions to each and every federal department and agency seeking justification for how taxpayer dollars are being spent."
But in a statement released Tuesday, John Cornyn (R-TX) said the Democrats - who still control both chambers of Congress - have "already forgotten the voters' message in November."
John McCain echoed that sentiment, saying:
“That omnibus bill will be loaded down with earmarks and pork barrel spending, which is a direct — a direct — betrayal of the majority of voters on Nov. 2 who said ‘Stop the earmarking, stop the spending, stop the pork barrel projects"
As of this writing, Claire McCaskill (D-MO) is the sole Democrat opposing the bill, demanding that an amendment she authored with Jeff Sessions (R-AL) is included. That amendment would place a three year cap on discretionary spending
Daniel Foster, of National Review, reports the bill "has more pork fat than the House counterpart passed last week, and far worse, it contains funding for Obamacare implementation."
Judd Gregg (R-NH) said the massive bill should be scrapped and replaced with a short-term continuing resolution that would keep the government operating until the new Congress is seated.













Comments