WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Clay Higgins (R-LA) announced today his intent to vote against the combined omnibus spending and COVID-19 relief bill.
Congressman Higgins issued the following statement:
“I’ll be voting no today on the massive Omnibus spending Bill. Speaker Pelosi has attached the COVID-19 relief Bill to the Omnibus.
That maneuver is insidious. It is swamp. Omnibus funding bills are wrong, and the COVID-19 vote should be separate.
Republican negotiators did an amazing job on the COVID-19 relief bill to move it from Pelosi’s $3 trillion monstrosity to $325 billion of new spending. However, by connecting that legislation to the Omnibus spending bill, Madame Speaker Pelosi has violated the basic tenet of representative discretion within the People’s House.
According to our Constitution, the House of Representatives initiates all federal spending bills. We should actually have individual votes on each appropriations bill. There are 12 Appropriations Committees. They produce 12 bills, and we should have 12 votes. An Omnibus is when all those bills are merged as one. An Omnibus spending bill forces abandonment of core principles on both sides of the aisle. It’s just wrong. Merging an Omnibus with a COVID-19 relief bill is beyond wrong. It’s DC wrong. It’s swamp. Today, we should at the very least have two votes, on two bills. Not one vote on one Frankenstein bill.
I’ll be voting no.”
