Conservative lawmakers are slamming House Republican leadership following the release of a massive spending bill that will fund the government through mid-March to avert a partial government shutdown by the Friday night deadline.
The sprawling 1,574-page bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), will temporarily extend current government funding levels through March 14, 2025 by approving hundreds of billions in spending. The CR also includes a treasure trove of spending priorities, including $100 billion in disaster relief, that lawmakers will likely have 72 hours or less to review before voting on the package.
Conservative lawmakers, especially those in the House Freedom Caucus, are fuming at Speaker of the House Mike Johnson for agreeing to “reckless and unpaid spending” and allowing an array of policy riders into the bill, some of which are congressional Democrats’ priorities.
The Cramnibus is 1550 pages with $100+ billion in unpaid-for spending negotiated behind closed doors.
At the least, it should move under a rule that ensures:
1️⃣ a full 72 hours to read it
2️⃣ a vote on the DOGE Act to cut non-defense spending 13% to pre-COVID 2019 levels
3️⃣…
— House Freedom Caucus (@freedomcaucus) December 18, 2024
“We’re just fundamentally unserious about spending,” Republican Texas Rep. Chip Roy told reporters in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday. “As long as you’ve got a blank check, you can’t shrink government. If you can’t shrink government you can’t live free.”
“I was frustrated before I came here. Now I’m more frustrated that I’m here and I see how horrific and how much of a disaster our fiscal situation is and the lack of appetite to actually do anything about it is disgusting to me,” Republican Missouri Rep. Eric Burlison told Newsmax in an interview on Tuesday where he also described the spending package as “a dumpster fire.” “I expected more from my Republican colleagues. I expect more from my speaker to be the conservative that I thought that he was, but instead we’re going to push through a hundreds of billion dollar package that’s going to add more debt to the deficit and continue this reckless process.”
“We complained about Nancy Pelosi dropping thousands of pages of an omnibus bill before Christmas,” Burlison added. “How is this any different?”
Some conservative lawmakers also pointed out that the massive spending package appears to be an affront to President-elect Donald Trump’s mission to cut wasteful spending through his administration’s Department of Government Efficiency.
“Lots of folks here in Congress are eager to celebrate DOGE’s mission—yet they’ll turn around and vote for the Swamp’s status quo of deficit spending,” Republican Georgia Rep. Andrew Clyde wrote on X following the release of the bill text. “Congress can’t save our country if it can’t get serious about Washington’s spending problem.”
“I’ll start my diet … but not until 2025” https://t.co/ostoudTN0e
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) December 17, 2024
Across the Capitol, several conservative Senate Republicans also torched the CR, which was negotiated between House and Senate leadership.
“This CR is an incredible embarrassment,” Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley wrote in a post on X following the release of the omnibus text.
“A ‘clean CR,’ right? 1,500+ pages, billions in reckless and unpaid spending, new bills that we have no time to review and wouldn’t have passed otherwise — business as usual in Washington,” Republican Florida Sen. Rick Scott wrote on X Tuesday. “Yet another reason we need President Trump and @DOGE to help us stop this crap and clean the federal government up.”
The House will vote on the CR first before the spending package heads to the Senate. Johnson’s office did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment if the speaker plans to follow the standard 72-hour rule of allowing lawmakers to review the legislation before bringing the spending package to a vote.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screen Capture/CSPAN)
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