Brooks: Spending Bill Undermines the Proper Functioning of a Republic

Press Release

On Thursday, Congressman Mo Brooks (AL-05) voted "No" on passage of H.R. 83, a $1.013 trillion, 1,600-page Continuing Resolution/Omnibus spending bill (nicknamed "CROmnibus") that funds the President's lawless executive amnesty and further damages America's perilous long-term financial stability. The House passed the CROmnibus on a narrow 219-206 vote.

Brooks stated, "My vote on the CROmnibus was a difficult one. Anytime the government spends more than $1 trillion, there are a lot of good things that will be funded. Notwithstanding those good things, I voted "No" on the CROmnibus because of the cumulative effect of these and other reasons (in no particular order):

"The CROmnibus spends more than $1 trillion, almost half of which America does not have, must borrow to get, and cannot afford to pay back. America recently blew through the $18 trillion debt mark. The CROmnibus spending exceeds previous spending caps, is financially irresponsible, and is not up to the financial challenges America faces. As such, the CROmnibus worsens the risk of a debilitating American insolvency and bankruptcy. I cannot endorse a spending bill that sends us further down a perilous path of financial ruin.

"The CROmnibus is over 1,600 pages long, was revealed just two days ago, and has not been read and fully understood by a single Senator or Congressman. The CROmnibus has thousands of line-items and hundreds of policy riders that require more deliberation and consideration than afforded by the process used by the Senate and House leaderships. Further, the CROmnibus procedure denies American citizens the opportunity to examine the legislation and participate in our democratic process by sharing their insight with their elected representatives in Washington. Congress should never be put in the position of having to pass legislation to find out what is in it. I decline to support this flawed process with my vote.

"The Senate and House Leadership barred Congressmen and Senators from offering amendments to the CROmnibus, thus making it a "take it or leave it" bill that undermines the democratic process and stifles the voices of Senators and Congressmen who have good ideas on how to improve the CROmnibus via the amendment process.

"A vote for the CROmnibus is a vote supporting President Obama's unconstitutional executive amnesty. President Obama has unilaterally and unconstitutionally ordered the granting of quasi-legal status, work permits and Social Security numbers to illegal aliens. In a Senate floor speech this week, Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) revealed that the second phase of President Obama's illegal alien amnesty plan involves giving illegal aliens a path to citizenship with accompanying voting rights, thereby diluting the voting power of American citizens while costing struggling American families jobs and lost wages. Not only does the CROmnibus fail to block President Obama's unconstitutional executive amnesty for illegal aliens, it affirmatively appropriates at least $948 million in support of illegal aliens. House leadership promises to "fight the President tooth and nail' on his unconstitutional executive amnesty, stating that 'this is the wrong way to govern.' However, the CROmnibus is a tacit surrender to the President's unilateral action and a missed opportunity to stop it. Sadly, to use a football analogy, leadership decided to punt on a first down without even running a play.

"The separation of powers set forth in the Constitution between the Executive and Legislative branches is made more porous by the CROmnibus. America's Founders knew firsthand the dangers of centralized government power. In Federalist #51, James Madison wrote that the best security against a gradual accumulation of powers by the executive branch is to give each branch of government the "necessary constitutional means . . . to resist encroachments of the others.' The Legislature, with its power of the purse, has not only the ability, but the duty under our Constitution to resist encroachment of the Executive. By not acting today to defund executive overreach, the House committed a disservice not only to the American people, but to the Constitution itself.

Brooks continued, "While there are necessary NASA and defense programs that I support and which are included in this bill, we must remember what Admiral Mike Mullen, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated numerous times: the greatest threat to our national security is our national debt. Congress has the power of the purse. We not only have the ability to rein in America's disastrous spending habits, we have the duty to. Yet, once again, instead of acting in the best interests of the American people, the House failed to be financially responsible concerning America's out-of-control national debt."

The omnibus spending bill now heads to the Senate floor and, if passed, then to the President's desk for enactment into law.

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