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Over 2,300 Pages. Less Than 24 Hours

Washington, D.C., December 17, 2019

With all the talk about this impeachment nonsense, you may not have heard that the House will be voting on two bills today (Tuesday) which would fund the federal government through the end of its fiscal year.

Around 5:00 PM yesterday, these bills – totaling more than 2,300 pages – were posted for Members and staff to review. Apparently, we're supposed to read and make an informed decision by 1:15 PM today, which is when the votes on this massive pile of paperwork are scheduled. Let that sink in for a minute: less than 24 hours to review, debate, and vote on over 2,300 pages' worth of federal spending.

I'm voting NO. This is ridiculous.

To be fair, I know there are some worthwhile elements in these two bills. In fact, I fought for several of them. However, this massive pile of legislation on my desk is still riddled with problems that outweigh its benefits. For example, there’s at least one bailout of a private pension plan here, as well as continued tax breaks for politically connected industries. It also extends several insolvent programs for another year with no accountability and no reforms. But the worst part about this legislation is that it will increase our national debt by roughly $400 BILLION with ABSOLUTELY NO offsets to reduce spending.

You did not send me to Washington to bankrupt our country, and I cannot vote for an appropriations bill of this magnitude that makes no effort to at least begin to get our fiscal house in order. So I'm heading to the House floor right now to vote NO.