Thornberry Says He Would Like Freeze On Federal Spending

Washington, DC – Congressman Mac Thornberry (TX-13) today issued the following statement on the United States Senate’s procedural vote delaying passage of President Obama’s $410 billion “omnibus” spending bill and the passage of a Continuing Resolution (CR) to fund the government for another five days.

“The Senate’s action is a welcome, albeit temporary, reprieve for America’s hard-pressed taxpayers.  With close to 9,000 earmarks, a cut in defense spending, and a $30 billion increase in overall federal spending, the Omnibus as proposed certainly does not represent a bipartisan consensus on how to get our economy growing again.”

“If the Omnibus passes in its present form it will be the largest discretionary spending increase – except for a brief rise after the 9/11 terrorist attacks – since Jimmy Carter was President.  Rather than increase federal spending by some $30 billion for the balance of this fiscal year (through September 30) on top of the enormous spending in the stimulus bill, we should freeze spending at current levels for the rest of the year.”

“Unfortunately, this delay may be just a short-term strategy to allow time for some typical Washington horse-trading to get the votes necessary to pass another $30 billion increase in spending on old-fashioned, big government programs.”

Thornberry statement ends

To view the full bill text of H.R. 1105, please click here.