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This was a vote on a 1,773-page “minibus” spending bill to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year. The bill funds the Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration, the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, the Department of Energy, the Interior Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, the State Department, the Departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Legislative Branch.
This legislation is a cornucopia of government waste and funding for progressive priorities, while President Trump’s campaign promises once again are neglected by Congress.
To summarize:
- The minibus bill spends $555 billion, increasing the deficit by another $390 billion on top of the increases from previous years, placing spending levels well above Trump’s budget proposals in every year.
- While it dramatically increases spending for bureaucracies like the Department of Education, Congress did not increase spending for the most needed function – immigration enforcement. ICE badly needs more detention space and agents for deportations.
- Major policy changes in the bill benefit special interests. The corporate welfare Export-Import Bank, which subsidizes countries like Saudi Arabia to purchase Boeing products, is reauthorized for seven years.
- Congress added new tax extenders for special interests at taxpayer expense.
- Congress repealed the Obamacare tax increases, which might sound like a good thing, but it’s actually going to make Obamacare worse because the bill contains a host of reauthorizations and expansions for all of the subsidy programs under Obamacare and Medicaid expansion. Congress also barred some of the recent regulatory reforms Trump imposed on Obamacare. While the core of Obamacare is codified and expanded, the taxes that paid for Obamacare were repealed. The effect is bigger deficits while the health care industry gets free handouts.
- Additionally, taxpayers are still paying for abortions through Obamacare insurance plans.
- Congress also expanded the federal Medicaid matching funds for U.S. territories by roughly 50 percent, incentivizing our territories to bust their budgets expanding Medicaid with the hope that the federal government will bail them out in the future.
- Congress bafflingly raised the age to purchase tobacco products to 21. While Congress has shown no will to fight back against states violating federal immigration law, it has now seized a state issue and nationalized it. While 18-year-old American soldiers continue to fight and die in Afghanistan in a war that began before they were born, they won’t even have the freedom to choose whether or not to smoke.
- Congress once again extended the broken and insolvent National Flood Insurance Program, which is now nearly $25 billion in debt.
- Congress is requiring the CDC and the National Institutes of Health to spend $25 million each to study gun violence.
This summary only scratches the surface of the bad policies conservatives do not support that are hidden in this bill. Immorally, the minibus was handed to lawmakers just days before they were expected to vote on the bill to avoid a government shutdown. No one read the bill, save for the lobbyists who wrote it. How can lawmakers represent the people’s interests if they have not read and cannot understand what they are voting for? How can the people understand and follow the law when it is too voluminous to read?
This minibus bill spends taxpayer money irresponsibly, funds policies that conservatives cannot support, fails to fund policies conservatives do support, and in execution, it is simply bad government.
The House of Representatives passed the 1,773-page minibus on December 17, 2019, at 2:05 pm ET in a roll call vote of 297 – 120.
The Senate passed the minibus bill on December 19, 2019, at 12:48 pm ET in a roll call vote of 71 – 23.
To see how your elected officials stack up or other votes that compose the Liberty Score, view our full scorecard here.
Conservative position: NO
U.S. House of Representatives*
*Minority party in italics
YEAS — 297
Adams Aderholt Aguilar Allred Amodei Axne Bacon Baird Balderson Barr Barragán Bass Beatty Bera Bergman Beyer Bilirakis Bishop (GA) Blumenauer Blunt Rochester Bonamici Bost Boyle, Brendan F. Brady Brindisi Brooks (IN) Brown (MD) Brownley (CA) Buchanan Bucshon Bustos Butterfield Calvert Carbajal Cárdenas Carson (IN) Carter (TX) Cartwright Case Casten (IL) Castor (FL) Castro (TX) Chu, Judy Cicilline Cisneros Clark (MA) Clarke (NY) Clay Cleaver Clyburn Cohen Cole Comer Conaway Connolly Cook Cooper Correa Costa Courtney Cox (CA) Craig Crenshaw Crist Crow Cuellar Cunningham Davids (KS) Davis (CA) Davis, Danny K. Davis, Rodney Dean DeFazio DeGette DeLauro DelBene Delgado Demings DeSaulnier Deutch Diaz-Balart Dingell Doyle, Michael F. Dunn Engel Escobar Eshoo Espaillat Evans Finkenauer Fitzpatrick Fleischmann Fletcher Fortenberry Foster Frankel Fudge Gallego Garamendi | García (IL) Garcia (TX) Gibbs Golden Gomez Gonzalez (TX) Gottheimer Granger Graves (GA) Green, Al (TX) Grijalva Guthrie Haaland Hagedorn Harder (CA) Hartzler Hastings Hayes Heck Herrera Beutler Higgins (NY) Hill (AR) Himes Horn, Kendra S. Horsford Houlahan Hoyer Huffman Hurd (TX) Jackson Lee Jayapal Jeffries Johnson (GA) Johnson (OH) Joyce (OH) Kaptur Katko Keating Kelly (IL) Kennedy Khanna Kildee Kilmer Kim King (NY) Kinzinger Kirkpatrick Krishnamoorthi Kuster (NH) Kustoff (TN) LaMalfa Lamb Langevin Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Lawrence Lawson (FL) Lee (CA) Lee (NV) Levin (CA) Levin (MI) Lieu, Ted Lipinski Loebsack Lofgren Lowenthal Lowey Luetkemeyer Luján Luria Lynch Malinowski Maloney, Carolyn B. Maloney, Sean Mast Matsui McBath McCarthy McCaul McCollum McEachin McGovern McHenry McKinley McNerney Meeks Meng Miller Mitchell Moolenaar Mooney (WV) Moore Morelle Moulton Mucarsel-Powell Murphy (FL) Napolitano Neal Neguse | Newhouse Norcross O'Halleran Palazzo Panetta Pappas Pascrell Payne Pence Perlmutter Peterson Phillips Pingree Pocan Porter Pressley Price (NC) Quigley Raskin Reed Reschenthaler Rice (NY) Richmond Roby Roe, David P. Rogers (KY) Rose (NY) Rouda Roybal-Allard Ruiz Ruppersberger Rush Rutherford Ryan Sánchez Sarbanes Scanlon Schakowsky Schiff Schneider Schrader Schrier Scott (VA) Scott, David Sewell (AL) Shalala Sherman Sherrill Simpson Sires Slotkin Smith (NE) Smith (NJ) Smith (WA) Soto Spanberger Speier Stanton Stauber Stefanik Stevens Stivers Suozzi Swalwell (CA) Takano Thompson (CA) Thompson (PA) Thornberry Titus Tlaib Tonko Torres (CA) Torres Small (NM) Trahan Trone Turner Underwood Upton Van Drew Veasey Vela Velázquez Visclosky Wagner Walberg Walden Walorski Wasserman Schultz Waters Watson Coleman Welch Wexton Wild Wilson (FL) Wilson (SC) Womack Woodall Yarmuth Young |
NAYs — 120
Abraham Allen Amash Armstrong Arrington Babin Banks Biggs Bishop (NC) Brooks (AL) Buck Budd Burchett Burgess Byrne Carter (GA) Chabot Cheney Cline Cloud Collins (GA) Crawford Curtis Davidson (OH) DesJarlais Doggett Duncan Emmer Estes Ferguson Flores Foxx (NC) Fulcher Gaetz Gallagher Gianforte Gohmert Gonzalez (OH) Gooden Gosar | Graves (LA) Graves (MO) Green (TN) Griffith Grothman Guest Harris Hern, Kevin Hice (GA) Higgins (LA) Holding Hudson Huizenga Johnson (LA) Johnson (SD) Jordan Joyce (PA) Keller Kelly (MS) Kelly (PA) Kind King (IA) LaHood Lamborn Latta Lesko Long Loudermilk Marchant Marshall Massie McAdams McClintock Meadows Meuser Mullin Murphy (NC) Norman Nunes Ocasio-Cortez | Olson Omar Pallone Palmer Perry Peters Posey Ratcliffe Rice (SC) Riggleman Rodgers (WA) Rogers (AL) Rooney (FL) Rose, John W. Rouzer Roy Scalise Schweikert Scott, Austin Sensenbrenner Smith (MO) Smucker Spano Steil Steube Stewart Taylor Timmons Tipton Waltz Watkins Weber (TX) Webster (FL) Wenstrup Westerman Williams Wittman Wright Yoho Zeldin |
Not Voting — 13
Bishop (UT) Gabbard Hollingsworth Hunter Johnson (TX) | Lewis Lucas Nadler Serrano Shimkus | Thompson (MS) Vargas Walker |
*Minority party in italics
U.S Senate
YEAs — 71
Alexander (R-TN)
Baldwin (D-WI)
Bennet (D-CO)
Blumenthal (D-CT)
Blunt (R-MO)
Boozman (R-AR)
Brown (D-OH)
Burr (R-NC)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Capito (R-WV)
Cardin (D-MD)
Casey (D-PA)
Collins (R-ME)
Coons (D-DE)
Cortez Masto (D-NV)
Cramer (R-ND)
Crapo (R-ID)
Duckworth (D-IL)
Durbin (D-IL)
Ernst (R-IA)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Fischer (R-NE)
Gardner (R-CO)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Hassan (D-NH)
Heinrich (D-NM)
Hirono (D-HI)
Hoeven (R-ND)
Hyde-Smith (R-MS)
Jones (D-AL)
Kaine (D-VA)
King (I-ME)
Leahy (D-VT)
Manchin (D-WV)
Markey (D-MA)
McConnell (R-KY)
McSally (R-AZ)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Merkley (D-OR)
Moran (R-KS)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Murphy (D-CT)
Murray (D-WA)
Perdue (R-GA)
Peters (D-MI)
Portman (R-OH)
Reed (D-RI)
Roberts (R-KS)
Romney (R-UT)
Rosen (D-NV)
Rounds (R-SD)
Rubio (R-FL)
Schatz (D-HI)
Schumer (D-NY)
Shaheen (D-NH)
Shelby (R-AL)
Sinema (D-AZ)
Smith (D-MN)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Sullivan (R-AK)
Tester (D-MT)
Thune (R-SD)
Tillis (R-NC)
Udall (D-NM)
Van Hollen (D-MD)
Warner (D-VA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wicker (R-MS)
Wyden (D-OR)
Young (R-IN)
NAYs — 23
Barrasso (R-WY)
Blackburn (R-TN)
Braun (R-IN)
Carper (D-DE)
Cassidy (R-LA)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Cotton (R-AR)
Cruz (R-TX)
Daines (R-MT)
Enzi (R-WY)
Gillibrand (D-NY)
Hawley (R-MO)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Johnson (R-WI)
Kennedy (R-LA)
Lankford (R-OK)
Lee (R-UT)
Paul (R-KY)
Risch (R-ID)
Sasse (R-NE)
Scott (R-FL)
Scott (R-SC)
Toomey (R-PA)
Not Voting — 6
Booker (D-NJ)
Harris (D-CA)
Isakson (R-GA)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Sanders (I-VT)
Warren (D-MA)
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