Key Vote NO in the Senate on the Consolidated Appropriations Act, H.R. 244

On behalf of our activist community, I urge you to contact your senators and ask them to vote NO on the Consolidated Appropriations Act, H.R. 244. The bill would fund the federal government for the remainder of FY 2017, which ends on September 30.

As explained in our key vote against the Consolidated Appropriations Act for the House of Representatives, the process for this massive 1,700-page omnibus could not have been worse. This spending measure was negotiated behind closed doors.

The Consolidated Appropriations Act blows through the spending caps established by the Budget Control Act of 2011 by $30 billion, bringing annualized base discretionary spending to $1.07 trillion for FY 2017. It also adds an additional $106 billion in off-budget spending. Added together, the bill spends more than $1.175 trillion for FY 2017.

Republicans have the White House and full control of Congress. Unfortunately, the product presented by negotiators is one that promotes Obama-era spending levels and emphasizes the spending priorities of congressional Democrats like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

Conservative grassroots activists across the country want Republicans in Congress to fight for fiscal responsibility. This bill falls is a big step in the wrong direction, and no fiscal conservative in the Senate should support it.

FreedomWorks will count the votes for the Consolidated Appropriations Act, H.R. 244, when calculating our Scorecard for 2017 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