In February, Congress passed the Bipartisan Budget Act, H.R. 1892, which busted the discretionary spending caps by nearly $300 billion over two years, increasing them to $1.291 trillion for FY 2018 and $1.321 trillion for FY 2019. The budget passed the Senate by a vote of 71 to 28 and the House by a vote of 240 to 186. Sixteen Republicans voted against the budget in the Senate and 67 in the House.

FreedomWorks is proud to announce that our bill of the month for June 2018 is H.Res. 919, sponsored by Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.). The resolution, which has 36 cosponsors, would recognize that our unsustainable national debt poses a true threat to the security of our country. This simple fact is too often ignored by those who claim to be fiscal conservatives, yet use increased defense funding as an excuse to vote for higher and higher spending levels each year.

In a press conference on Friday, President Donald Trump criticized the process that Congress used to pass the Consolidated Appropriations Act, H.R. 1625, although he signed the spending bill into law. Still, he threatened to veto a future spending bill that was packed with wasteful spending and unrelated legislative priorities.

Arguments from Republicans in favor of the omnibus spending package passed by Congress last week are almost all tied together by a common theme: “our military needs this.” The $700 billion appropriated in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, H.R. 1625, for defense spending is argued to be crucial for the security of our country. This mantra resonated loudly among the 145 Republican representatives and 25 Republican senators who cast a “yea” vote for the omnibus last Thursday.

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.