Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley) yesterday voted against the $1.3 trillion spending bill passed by Congress yesterday to fund the government through the Sept. 30 end of fiscal year 2018.
The First District congressman was one of 90 House Republicans who refused to support the omnibus bill, which was released late Wednesday with a noon vote Thursday, allowing lawmakers very little time to digest the 2,232-page bill.
“Last night, I was presented with a 2,000 plus page, $1.3 trillion spending bill that our country just cannot afford,” Zeldin said in a Facebook post Thursday evening, criticizing the “very quick turnaround between introduction and voting” which he said “makes it impossible to fully read and adequately comprehend its contents.”
Facing a Friday deadline to avert the third federal government shutdown this year, congressional leaders pushed to get the spending bill adopted quickly.
The bill passed in the House yesterday afternoon (256-167) with the support of 145 Republicans. It passed the Senate late last 65-32. The bill will be sent to the president’s desk, where President Donald Trump is expected to sign it.
The bill has “many positive elements,” Zeldin acknowledged. But it is also filled with unnecessary spending, he said.
“Digging deeper, it’s clear who the biggest losers are: our children, who continue to get saddled with more and more crushing levels of debt, to the tune of $64,000 per person and no end in sight,” Zeldin wrote.
The national debt is now more than $21 trillion and will rise given new spending hikes and the GOP tax-cut bill approved last year, which may push the federal deficit to more than $1 trillion next year.
Among things included in the spending bill: $4 billion to help state and local governments fight the opioid crisis; $2.3 billion for school safety; $1.57 billion for border security, including barriers and technology; more than $1.4 billion in funding that could be used for the NY-NJ Gateway tunnel project; $380 million for election security grants; and a 2.4 percent military pay raise.
Also included is $12 million in Long Island Sound restoration funding for programs such as nitrogen reduction, habitat restoration, wetland protection and water quality improvements.
“There’s no doubt, the pot is sweet,” Zeldin said, “but I won’t ransom away our children’s future and kick the can to them. I’m not willing to continue swiping the country’s credit card like a teenager at Tanger with no way of paying for it.”
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