Rep. Barry Moore votes against last-minute spending bill

December 23, 2022

Washington, D.C. — Rep. Barry Moore (R-AL) issued the following statement after voting against the omnibus spending bill that passed the House this afternoon and is heading to the President’s desk. Instead of the timely consideration and passage of twelve separate appropriations bills, Congress punted the FY2023 spending bill until the lame-duck session by passing legislation extending previous spending levels past the original September deadline until this month. For months, Moore has warned that no multi-trillion spending bill should be considered after the November election when Congress is no longer accountable to voters.

“This bill not only continues or increases funding for the Biden administration’s most dangerous policies, but because the vote occurred after the November elections, Democrats were unshackled by accountability from the voters and free to include even more radical programs from their wish list,” said Moore. “I was encouraged at the overwhelming opposition from the American people to this disastrous legislation, but it was disappointing to watch so many of their elected representatives sign off on whatever was necessary to get home for the holidays. With so many Senate Republicans time and again unwilling to go to the mat for our voters, House Republicans must take the lead in the next Congress fighting for the interests of the American people.”

BACKGROUND:

The total package is projected to increase the 10-year deficit by $2.65 trillion, or $20,000 per household according to projections from the Heritage Foundation. It includes over $47 billion in Ukraine, bringing the total that American taxpayers have spent subsidizing the Eastern European war to over $100 billion. The bill also includes a staggering $15 billion in earmarks for individual members' pet projects, including:

$1.2 million for “LGBTQIA+ Pride Centers”
$3.6 million for a Michelle Obama Trail in Georgia
$750,000 for “LGBT and Gender Non-Conforming housing” in Albany, New York
$750,000 for the “TransLatin@ Coalition” to provide “workforce development programs and supportive services for Transgender and Gender nonconforming and Intersex (TGI) immigrant women in Los Angeles”
$150,000 for a sidewalk project in Mapleton, Maine, a community of fewer than 2,000 people
$477,000 for "antiracist" training from the Equity Institute
$1.5 million to restore Albany, New York's city hall
$2.35 million in improvement/maintenance for the Iditarod Trail

Other provisions in the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill include:

· $410 million towards border security -- for Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia and Oman
· $12.3 billion for the Internal Revenue Service, on top of the nearly $80 billion provided to the IRS in the Inflation Reduction Act
· $3 million to enforce bee-friendly highway policies
· $65.7 million for international fishery commissions
· $1.2 million in "services for DACA recipients"
· $200 million for a "Gender Equity Fund"
· $11.33 billion for the FBI
· $1.75 billion for the ATF
· $2.63 billion for US Attorneys, with an emphasis on January 6 prosecutions and domestic terrorism cases
· $286 million in Title IX funding, which funds Planned Parenthood
· Adds a pandemic czar position to our bloated bureaucracy
· $10.1 billion to the EPA
· $8.6 million for "gender advisory programs" at the Pentagon
· $50 million for a democracy program in Venezuela
· $27.64 million for the Kennedy Center in DC

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