Key Vote NO on the Supplemental Appropriations Act, H.R. 268

On behalf of our activist community, I urge you to contact your representative and ask him or her to vote NO on the Supplemental Appropriations Act, H.R. 268. The legislation would spend another $12.1 billion for disaster relief for areas affected by Hurricane Florence, Hurricane Michael, wildfires, and other recent natural disasters without any offsets for the new spending.

Aside from not being offset, this spending is unnecessary. While no one disagrees with the need to help areas of our country that have been so seriously affected by natural disasters, the funding that has already been approved is more than enough to accomplish this task. At the end of 2018, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Disaster Relief Fund still had $27.6 billion unspent. President Trump also has not requested additional funds for disaster relief, as is customary when funds are needed for relief.

There is no reason for Congress to be spending taxpayer dollars unnecessarily for the sake of appearing sympathetic to a cause that is already very adequately funded, if not excessively funded. Our national debt is now approximately $22 trillion, and Congress needs to be spending less wherever it can — not more — especially if the spending is simply to score political points.

FreedomWorks will count the vote on H.R. 268 when calculating our Scorecard for 2019 and reserves the right to score any related votes. The scorecard is used to determine eligibility for the FreedomFighter Award, which recognizes Members of the House and Senate who consistently vote to support economic freedom and individual liberty.

Sincerely,

Adam Brandon
President, FreedomWorks