Nation, Congress scramble to unpack ‘uniparty’ spending bill that moved in the dead of night

by WorldTribune Staff, March 22, 2024

The Washington, D.C. “uniparty” on Friday overcame a late charge by conservatives and rammed through a spending package that moved in the dead of night.

The $1.2 trillion “minibus” bill spanned over 1,000 pages and was made public early Thursday morning while most Americans were asleep.

House Speaker Mike Johnson

The vote in the House was 286 to 134, exceeding the two-thirds supermajority needed to approve the bill under a special procedure needed by House Speaker Mike Johnson to bypass internal GOP divisions.

Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said “No Republican in good conscience can vote for the uniparty minibus. This is not a Republican bill. It is a Chuck Schumer, Democrat-controlled bill coming from the ‘Republican-controlled’ House. The Speaker of the House should not bring it to the floor.”

Later, on the steps of the Capitol, Greene told reporters: “Today I filed a motion to vacate after Speaker Johnson has betrayed our conference and broken our rules. I respect our conference; I paid all my dues to my conference; I’m a member in good standing, and I do not wish to inflict pain on our conference and to throw the House in chaos,” she added.

“But this is basically a warning, and it’s time for us to go through the process, take our time, and find a new Speaker of the House that will stand with Republicans in our Republican majority instead of standing with the Democrats.”

Pressed on when she would force a vote on Johnson’s removal, Greene said she didn’t “have a timeline” and noted that it “will be a rolling issue that we’ll be judging and making decisions by.”

“I’m not saying that it won’t happen in two weeks or it won’t happen in a month or who knows when, but I am saying the clock has started,” Greene said. “It’s time for our conference to choose a new Speaker.”

Johnson failed to get a majority of the GOP conference to back the bill, a rare occurrence for a speaker that critics say shows the deep division in the party.

Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy slammed the bill for its bloated spending and lack of oversight: “With less than 24 hrs to review — the #SwampOmnibus — 1000+ pages & $1.2 Trillion — shatters spending caps to fund the WHO, woke DOD policies, a weaponized FBI headquarters, & utterly fails to address Progressive Democrats’ mass release of criminals across our borders. No Republican should vote for it.”

“My Republican colleagues cannot go campaign against mass parole and use the name of Laken Riley, because you pass a bill in her name, when you fund the very policies that lead to her death,” said Roy on the House floor. “Any of my Republican colleagues you want to spend this year campaigning against open borders — it’s a laugh. Because today, if you vote for this abomination of a bill, you will be voting to fund it. You will be voting to fund the very policies that you will campaign against.”

One GOP lawmaker cited absurd pork including funding for LGBTQ centers and facilities that provide late-term abortions.

“This is not the bill that my subcommittee produced and supported. The Senate has taken liberties with their Congressionally Directed Spending requests that would never stand in the House,” said Alabama Republican Rep. Robert Aderholt, chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on Labor and Health & Human Services (HHS).

“The House did not include these partisan funding projects in its Labor-HHS legislation. Based on these principles, the Senate shouldn’t either,” Aderholt continued. “I have multiple concerns, among them are the many new social services that this bill would create for the millions of illegal immigrants streaming across our border. Additionally, it would fund facilities providing routine abortion services, including late-term abortions. The Senate must respect the work of the House. In good conscience, I cannot and will not vote for these projects or this bill.”

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