Key Vote NO on the Supplemental Appropriations Act, H.R. 2157

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. 2157, sponsored by Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.). The Supplemental Appropriations Act would provide for an additional $17.2 billion in emergency relief funds with no offsets, although the Disaster Relief Fund still has more than $29 billion in it. The bill would also further other big-government policies, including duplicative agriculture subsidies, National Flood Insurance Program reauthorization, and community development block grant spending.

This bill, which is a modified and worsened version of another supplemental appropriations bill, H.R. 268, that passed the House in January. H.R. 2157 spends close to 50 percent more than H.R. 268 despite, again, no new funds being requested for these disasters. Because it will be brought to the floor as an emergency supplemental, the spending in it is also exempt from the Budget Control Act discretionary spending caps.

Furthermore, H.R. 2157 would also ramp up agriculture subsidies that already distort the market and amount to no better than other defunct welfare programs. With $22 trillion of national debt and more being added with each passing day, we need to be spending more, not less. At the very least, we need to fully and honestly offset any new federal spending with further spending cuts.

Additionally, the rule governing H.R. 2157 would extend the National Flood Insurance Program through the end of the year without any reforms, which conservatives have been rightfully fighting for the past seemingly infinite number of reauthorizations. As we noted last year, only 3 of the more than 40 reauthorizations in the past two decades have included any reforms. This extension was slipped into the rule, meaning that it has been shielded from the debate and consideration that reauthorizing a program that is more than $20 billion in debt deserves.

FreedomWorks will count the vote on H.R. 2157 when calculating our Scorecard for 2019 and reserves the right to weight any 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