The Consolidated Appropriations Act, H.R. 1625, is packed full of legislative priorities for leadership and other items to get enough votes for passage. Most of what was negotiated and slipped into the Consolidated Appropriations Act, known as the “omnibus,” behind closed doors is bad for taxpayers or just bad policy. Unfortunately, amendments that were previously passed by the House to prevent the Department of Justice from ramping up its use of civil asset forfeiture were not included in the bill.

Sarah Anderson co-authored this post.

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) told reporters earlier today that the government spending bill will be released late Tuesday evening, likely right before midnight. The House will vote on Thursday. The Senate will follow. As long as the bill isn't amended, the bill will subsequently go to the president's desk. But the process has cast a dark cloud for this spending bill. And the $1.3 trillion at which Congress will appropriate is also a reminder of a bad budget deal Congress recently passed.

The House and Senate are in session this week.

The House and Senate are in session this week.

The House is expected to vote on an omnibus spending bill next week. There are several riders that could be attached to the bill that will frustrate those of us who believe in limited government. The ObamaCare bailout is one piece that could be added, thanks to Senate HELP Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-Wash.), and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.). But another rider that could be added is the Internet sales tax, which conservatives have successfully killed in the past.

The House and Senate are in session this week.

The House and Senate are in session this week.

On behalf of FreedomWorks’ activist community in Kentucky, I urge you contact your senator and urge him or her to support Senate Bill 133 to protect incarcerated women in Kentucky and refocus corrections resources on true public safety threats. This bill concentrates on the drivers of female incarceration in Kentucky, currently home to the second highest rate of female incarceration nationally, more than twice the national average, while also providing greater protections to those incarcerated in jails and prisons across Kentucky, particularly for pregnant women in custody.

The White House unveiled its FY 2019 budget request this morning. Although it's incredibly unlikely that the budget request will become law, it does provide a window into the policy priorities of the Trump administration. Of course, the passage of the Bipartisan Budget Act, H.R. 1892, set the discretionary spending level for FY 2019 at $1.321 trillion -- $716 billion for defense discretionary and $605 billion nondefense discretionary. This level of spending is $153 billion higher than the pre-Bipartisan Budget Act spending caps.