Senate approves a $447 billion omnibus bill

This afternoon, the Senate The Senate approved a $447 billion omnibus bill Sunday, clearing a package of six appropriations bills for President Obama's signature. The measure, which passed the House last week, was approved by the Senate, 57 to 35. The vote was mostly along party lines -- three Republicans voted for the bill, and three Democrats voted against it. The Washington Post identified that, "The package contains funding for dozens of federal agencies and the District of Columbia. Including spending on mandatory programs like Medicare and Social Security, the bill's price tag totals $1.1 trillion. The measure also carries thousands of earmarks and double-digit spending increases for many programs, prompting Republicans to attack Democrats' priorities. . . .

Obama is expected to sign the measure, and when he does, several longstanding restraints on how the District can spend federal money will be removed. The measure ends restrictions -- promulgated by Republicans but unpopular among local leaders -- that banned needle-exchange programs, medical marijuana use and local government-funded abortion."

U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) today said that he voted against the $445 billion Consolidated Appropriations bill because it includes $236 billion in spending that was suddenly added by a committee — that only met last Tuesday night—without being considered or debated by the full U.S. Senate. “$236 billion was added to this bill in the middle of the night on matters never considered by the full Senate. This is no way to manage federal spending,” Alexander said. “I’m glad this bill contains funding that I requested for worthy projects in Tennessee, but I can’t support hundreds of billions of dollars of spending that has never even seen the light of day.”

Our ancestors must be rolling over in their graves. They would never have considered working on Sunday especially to pass a bill that could well have been passed on Monday. We all realize that Reid, Pelosi and Obama are "hell bent" on taking America further into debt. And to add to the effort, Reid brokers an additional $236 billion middle of the night deal. The Devil must have been truly in the details.

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