By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Congressmen voted “No” on Thursday on H.R. 6119, a continuing resolution that keeps the government funded for another two and a half months to avoid a government shutdown. Rep. Mo Brooks, Rep. Robert Aderholt, Rep. Gary Palmer, Rep. Mike Rogers, Rep. Jerry Carl, and Rep. Barry Moore voted No. Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) was the only Republican in the House to vote with the Democrats. It passed 221 to 212 in the House. It passed with bipartisan support in the Senate 69 to 28. Congress passed the bill the day before the government was scheduled to run out of money.
Brooks said that the bill as written increases the likelihood of America suffering debilitating insolvency and bankruptcy while harming the Department of Defense’s and NASA’s ability to plan for the future. Brooks said the measure includes billions in funding for resettlement of illegal aliens and unscreened and unvetted Afghans, and raises the debt ceiling.
“America’s debt will soon blow through the $30 trillion mark,” Brooks said. “That is roughly $90,000 in debt for every man, woman and child in America. America has suffered $3 trillion deficits in back-to-back years for the first time in history. No one knows how bad 2022 will be, but this reckless continuing resolution is certain to make America’s insolvency risk worse. We simply have too many economically illiterate and reckless spenders in Congress whose spending binges have contributed to the inflation that’s hammering American families.”
Brooks said agencies will not be able to plan ahead and start new programs with this “temporary funding.”
“Congress should fund the government through annual appropriations bills that give departments certainty of funding so that they can operate as efficiently as possible,” said Brooks.
“This is not how Washington should work,” said Brooks. “And, I won’t support such a harmful way of conducting Congress’s business. What’s more, the continuing resolution has extraneous provisions such as billions in handouts and give-a-ways for newly imported Afghanistan evacuees who were never properly vetted. The overwhelming majority of Afghan evacuees are adult males. Very few evacuees helped American forces in the war in Afghanistan, and we should not be taking hard-earned money from American taxpayers to give welfare to Afghans.”
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-California) urged members to support the continuing resolution.
“Once again we're at a deadline for funding the government, there's a deadline to raise the debt ceiling,” Pelosi said. “What kind of a message does it send to the American people that even keeping the government open is a struggle? I mean, we're sitting here talking about whether or not the House, the Senate can get it done.”
The Senate and House both passed the short-term funding bill to avert a government shutdown after a days-long fight over President Biden’s vaccine mandate slowed the process down. Some Republicans wanted language in the C.R. overturning President Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
Pelosi and the Democrats refused to budge on that issue.
“We're not going to go for their anti-vaxxing,” Pelosi said. “So, if you think that's how we're going to keep government open, forget that. How do they explain to the public that they're shutting down government because they don't want people to get vaccinated? This is so silly.”
Ultimately, Senate Republicans dropped the demand and the C.R. had the votes for passage. Passage of the C.R. means that the government can continue to borrow money and a government shutdown is avoided through Feb. 18. The President is expected to sign the measure.
(Original reporting by the Hill, Yahoo News, and Microsoft News was consulted in the preparation of this report.)
To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email brandon.moseley@1819News.com.
