Key Vote Alert – “NO” on Appropriations Minibus

The Club for Growth urges all Senators and Representatives to vote NO on the Appropriations minibus. The results of this vote will be included in the Club for Growth Foundation’s 2024 congressional scorecard. This minibus includes the Defense, Homeland Security, Labor-HHS, Legislative Branch, Financial Services-General Government and State-Foreign Operations subcommittee appropriations bills.

Since passage of the last minibus appropriations bill on March 8, Washington has added an additional $117 billion in new debt. Continued unsustainable spending will only further fuel the cycle of inflation and interest rates that are eating away at every Americans standard of living. Unfortunately, this minibus continues the reckless march towards a debt crisis by spending above the spending caps set in the Fiscal Responsibility Act through gimmicks, offsets that fuel more spending and unjustified emergency designations. Further, the bill continues the inherently corrupt practice of earmarks to grease the skids for final passage. Simply put, this is not why conservatives were sent to Washington.

Further, bringing a bill of this magnitude should go through regular order – not under suspension of the rules. It violates the spirit of the rules of the GOP conference, which specifically prohibit consideration of legislation which “… fails to include a cost estimate, or for which the cost estimate exceeds $100,000,000, unless fully offset by at least an equal reduction in current spending…”, and be “…noticed to Members of the Republican Conference at least 5 days prior to floor consideration…” As of this writing, there is no cost estimate for members to review, the cost will clearly well exceed $100 million with numerous gimmicks and unjustified spending designations used as “offsets”, and members will not have five days to review the contents before consideration.

House conservatives must stand and fight. Despite scaremongering from liberals who got our nation in this mess, there is nothing unreasonable about enacting a long-term continuing resolution that keeps defense spending above FY2023 enacted levels and forces lawmakers to put the interests of the American people struggling with unaffordable groceries and mortgages before those shielded from the consequences of reckless spending. The American people want relief from Bidenflation and are desperate for leaders to firmly break with the status quo. Conservatives should answer this call and stand athwart the continued growth the D.C Leviathan. That begins by defeating this spending package.

Club for Growth Foundation’s Congressional Scorecard for the 118th Congress provides a comprehensive rating of how well or how poorly each member of Congress supports pro-growth, free-market policies and will be distributed to the public.