Key Vote NO on Cloture for the “CRomnibus”

As one of our over 6.7 million FreedomWorks activists nationwide, I urge you to contact your senators and ask them to vote NO on cloture for the hybrid omnibus appropriations and continuing resolution spending bill.

It is bad enough that this bill fully funds all aspects of the federal government with no appreciable limits on its out-of-control spending. Over a trillion dollars in base spending, with extra spending tacked on in off-budget “emergency” spending so that the bill appears to fit under the legally-mandated Budget Control Act spending caps.

But the worst feature of this bill is the dishonest and secretive process used to produce it. Crafted behind closed doors, with most lawmakers having little or no access to the proceedings, there was no opportunity for any open votes or public input on the many special interest provisions that were added and subtracted from the bill.

A perfect example of the negotiators’ disregard for the views of individual Members (and their constituents) was the elimination of the Massie amendment language to rein in warrantless government surveillance. After passing this summer with an overwhelming, bipartisan majority of 293 votes, the amendment was quietly stripped from the omnibus language – no vote, no debate.

This lack of transparency was deliberate – Congress could have started this bill to fund the government, with a real debate and amendments, at any time this year. Instead, Congress punted its largest and most important duty until after the election, into this “lame duck” session where they knew there would be limited time and lessened scrutiny.
This bill is exactly how not to run a government.

Therefore, we hope that you will call your senators and ask them to vote NO on cloture for the “CRomnibus”. FreedomWorks will count this vote as a Key Vote when calculating its Economic Freedom Scorecard for 2014. This scorecard is used to determine eligibility for the FreedomFighter Award, which recognizes Members of Congress who consistently vote to support economic freedom.

Sincerely,

Matt Kibbe

President and CEO,
FreedomWorks