What made the cut in Congress’ $1.2 trillion funding deal?

[mystery-ak]

 What made the cut in Congress’ $1.2 trillion funding deal?
by Aris Folley - 03/21/24 8:35 AM ET

Congressional leaders rolled out a sprawling $1.2 trillion legislative package to fund swaths of the government into the fall.

The 1,012-page, six-bill funding package was released in the wee hours of Thursday, as lawmakers push to get the legislation quickly across the finish line to avert a shutdown this weekend.

Here are just some of the highlights:

Homeland Security

The package includes more than $490 million in funding to hire 22,000 Border Patrol agents, which Republicans are touting as the “highest level ever funded.”

Negotiators have been highlighting funding boosts for border security technology, increases to Border Patrol overtime pay that had been greenlighted in the annual defense authorization bill last year, and funding for 41,500 detention beds. Democrats have also seized on a lack of border wall funding after a partisan fight over Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spending.

The bill comes as both sides have ramped up their messaging on the border ahead of the presidential election in November. But conservatives have already said more is needed as they press for hard-line policy changes.

“Having more ICE beds isn’t going to do crap when they have ICE memos in place that are saying don’t go enforce the law,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) told reporters after GOP leadership highlighted some DHS funding at a meeting earlier this week.

“Getting more Border Patrol agents just means processing more people, right? If you don’t have the policy changes, you still have open borders.”

more
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4546755-government-funding-deal-details/

[mystery-ak]

 Congressional leaders unveil $1.2T funding deal ahead of shutdown threat
by Aris Folley - 03/21/24 5:52 AM ET

Congressional leaders have rolled out a sprawling package funding large swaths of the government for the rest of fiscal 2024 after last-minute drama over Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding threatened efforts to avert a shutdown later this week.

The package combines funding for half of the 12 annual government spending bills, and sets off a sprint for lawmakers to put a stamp on the more than a trillion dollars in spending and prevent major agencies from suffering a lapse in funds.

The plan includes measures funding for DHS; the departments of Defense, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and State; the IRS; and general government and foreign operations.

more
https://thehill.com/business/budget/4537897-congressional-leaders-unveil-funding-deal-ahead-of-shutdown-threat/

[mountaineer]

What made the cut was funding for a group that helps children "transition."

Slipped in there is $400k from our taxes funneled to Briarpatch Youth Services. Briarpatch YS gives 13-year-old kids chest binders, tuck equipment, "counseling" all WITHOUT PARENTAL CONSENT.

https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/1770825410449727745

[American Girl]

Politicians in DC have zero connection to the American people.  Both parties, they despise us on every level.  We no longer have a representative government.

https://redstatenation.com/while-americans-were-sleeping-the-swamp-released-1012-pages-of-its-second-half-of-the-omnibus-spending-1-2-trillion-the-american-people-have-a-simple-solution/

[rustynail]

'What made the cut'?  Everything and then some.

[mountaineer]

'What made the cut'?  Everything and then some.

Everything except border security or military readiness, I assume.

[DefiantMassRINO]

Just because $490 million is allocated to hire 22,000 Border Patrol agents doesn't necessarily mean those 22,000 will actually be filled.  It wouldn't suprise me if some of that $490 million leached into other things not in the bill.

Biden will promise whatever it takes to get the money he wants.  Once it's in his grubby hands, it becomes a fungible slush fund.

The Border Problem is primarily a policy issue.  Assylum seekers need to remain outside the United States while their applications are being adjudicated.  Illegal migrants need to be apprehended at the Border and deported immediately.

Catch and release needs to end immediatley.  Once migrants / assylum seekers are released inside the United States, they become immediate financial, health, public safety, housing, and education liabilities for state and municipal governments.  NGO's will seek to get work permits and drivers licenses for the "released" migrants / assylum seekers.  Once there are acquired, they can melt into the population and get lost in the system.

Then there's also the issue of anchor babies.  While inside the United States, migrants / assylum seekers may give birth to babies who recieve Birth Citizenship.  Once there is a migrant / assylum seeker family with a young baby with American Birth Citizenship, it will become more difficult to deport them, even if their assylum request is rejected.  NGO's will lobby that the family stay for "humanitarian" reasons.

Don't let 'em in.
Don't let 'em stay.

[mountaineer]

Josh Hawley
@HawleyMO
In this $1.2 trillion budget bill, ZERO for Missouri radiation victims - but billions in earmarks, including money for “divesting in policing.” Translation: defund the police
12:17 PM · Mar 21, 2024

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸
@RepMTG
The minibus was released at 2:32 am and is 1,012 pages of $1.2 trillion taxpayer dollars. And we are supposed to be voting on it tomorrow morning under suspension with no amendments allowed with the super scary government shutdown deadline threat looming tomorrow at midnight.
It takes 27.8 hours for the average reader to read 1,000 pages.  I guess we are supposed to just pass it first and then find out what’s in it like Nancy Pelosi says.
This comes after months and months of hardly any effort to pass single issue appropriation bills while 3 Continuing Resolutions (continuing Pelosi’s budget) were passed.
Our Republican majority started this Congress with sweeping rule changes to stop this very behavior yet here we are on the verge of passing a second minibus under suspension with no amendments allowed and violating the 72 hour rule.
8:20 AM · Mar 21, 2024

[DefiantMassRINO]

Why would this time be different?

Dems manage by crisis to deflect and avoid opportunity for debate.  House GOP keeps falling for the trap.

The primary Constitutional responsibility of the House of Reps is to write bills of appropriation.  The investigations to nowhere and the impeachments about nothing play right advantage the Dems.

If the GOP wants to re-engage in fiscal conservatism, it needs to realize that wedge issues - abortion, gun rights, culture wars, etc. - are distractions from the budget process.

When I was in grade school, the class bully asked me for a quarter, and  I gave it to him.  Later, he asked me for another quarter, and I gave it to him.  For a third time that day, he asked for a quarter, and I gave it him before I realize I had just "lent" him 75 cents.

If he asked me for 75 cents, I would have said, "No.", because that was unreasonable.  But asking for 25 cents, was reasonable.  So, the bully knew that he could get more money from other kids in the class by asking for one quarter at a time, rather than asking for the whole amount upfront.  The Dems are doing to the House GOP what bully did to me.  They are squeezing more money out of the House by asking for it in increments.

Dems will never agree to an Omnibubs Budget Bill, because that ask would be too large to slip by fiscal conservatives and American taxpayers.  Instead, the Dems ask for a trillion dollars here and few hundred billion dollars there in separate spending bills.

Does anyone really know how much the Federal Government is budgeted to spend in 2024?

[bilo]

I suppose if the Pubs lose the House they will say it's because the public didn't know how hard they fought for us.

I know I'll vote for Trump, but I'll have to take a long look at the rest of the ticket. I don't want to support anymore of this crap.

[mountaineer]

Just uncovered more funding for LGBTQ chest binding and "gender-affirming care" for CHILDREN - Senator Bob Menendez snuck $400,000 of government funding for the Garden State Equality Education Fund

https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/1770836246241137022

[catfish1957]

I thought the GOP controled the House.  /S

[bilo]

I thought the GOP controled the House.  /S

No kidding!

It's been a long miserable run. The only time I can think of the Pubs actually fighting to do what they campaigned on was when Gingrich first became Speaker.

[christian]

If we CAN'T blame everything that democrats do on Republicans, whats the point in having a discussion?

 

 

[christian]

What we need is more of the same, so damn fools can be happy, mega quadrillion ultra spending, reserved exclusively for foreigners and nations that hate America.  More of the same, more of the same More of the same, more of the same More of the same, more of the same More of the same, more of the same More of the same, more of the same More of the same, more of the same More of the same, more of the same More of the same, more of the same.
When your finally finished blame it all on God for making you so stupid!

[Smokin Joe]

What we need is more of the same, so damn fools can be happy, mega quadrillion ultra spending, reserved exclusively for foreigners and nations that hate America.  More of the same, more of the same More of the same, more of the same More of the same, more of the same More of the same, more of the same More of the same, more of the same More of the same, more of the same More of the same, more of the same More of the same, more of the same.
When your finally finished blame it all on God for making you so stupid!

Even the full recognition of the problem does not present a solution.
The options are:
Continued insane spending AND crushing crucial sectors of the economy (and national security) with regulations and policy, not to mention billions in taxation,

OR just spending money like there is no tomorrow.

Granted, part of the latter came from well-intentioned but heavily looted funds to offset part of the economic destruction of COVID policy, but still, it is and was out of control. That money is still being spent, deflected into pet programs of the Left.

[Mod2]

Topics merged

[bilo]

Even the full recognition of the problem does not present a solution.
The options are:
Continued insane spending AND crushing crucial sectors of the economy (and national security) with regulations and policy, not to mention billions in taxation,

OR just spending money like there is no tomorrow.

Granted, part of the latter came from well-intentioned but heavily looted funds to offset part of the economic destruction of COVID policy, but still, it is and was out of control. That money is still being spent, deflected into pet programs of the Left.

The only solution is to force out the Establishment Loyalists in the Pub party. If they can't be voted out in primaries then don't vote for them in the general election. It's clear that the only difference between the Rats and the Establishment Loyalists in the Pub party is the Rats stab you in the heart while facing you and the Establishment Loyalists stab you in the back.

If the Pubs have a majority with a large number of Establishment Loyalists crossing the aisle when it's convenient take away their committee seats and cut off funding for their re-election. If they join the Rat party and Pubs lose the majority so what. They are voting against us anyway.

[mountaineer]

Congress buried $850,000 for "LGBTQ Senior Housing" services in the $1.2 TRILLION bill

https://twitter.com/ryanlwalker/status/1770830070820540805

[mountaineer]

Of the $1.2 trillion, “$500 million [is] appropriated for the Defense Security Cooperation Agency,” which will “support the Armed Forces of Jordan and to enhance security along its border  ..."

https://twitter.com/Rifleman4WVU/status/1771527982126858419

[mountaineer]

[catfish1957]

Holding one part of the government in majority at least gave us some obstructionist opportunities.

But nope, these feckless republicans can't even operate as speed bumps.  Notice the record gold prices this week?  ($2,200/oz.). That slow hissing sound is the dollar balloon, leaking like a sieve.

[mountaineer]

Thomas Massie
@RepThomasMassie
What the hell is this evil?
A Federal Red Flag center;
We did not authorize this.
Announced, of course, just hours after the omnibus passes.
8:57 AM · Mar 23, 2024

Justice Department Launches the National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center
Saturday, March 23, 2024
For Immediate Release
Office of Public Affairs

The Justice Department launched the National Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) Resource Center (the Center) which  will provide training and technical assistance to law enforcement officials, prosecutors, attorneys, judges, clinicians, victim service and social service providers, community organizations, and behavioral health professionals responsible for implementing laws designed to keep guns out of the hands of people who pose a threat to themselves or others.

“The launch of the National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center will provide our partners across the country with valuable resources to keep firearms out of the hands of individuals who pose a threat to themselves or others,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “The establishment of the Center is the latest example of the Justice Department’s work to use every tool provided by the landmark Bipartisan Safer Communities Act to protect communities from gun violence.”

ERPO laws, which are modeled off domestic violence protection orders, create a civil process allowing law enforcement, family members (in most states), and medical professionals or other groups (in some states) to petition a court to temporarily prohibit someone at risk of harming themselves or others from purchasing and possessing firearms for the duration of the order. ...

Through the Center and its newly launched website, states, local governments, law enforcement, prosecutors, attorneys, judges, clinicians, victim service providers, and behavioral health and other social service providers will have direct access to critical information that will enhance their ability to reduce firearm homicides and suicides. The website will be maintained and updated to include newly developed resources for the field created through the Center, in partnership with BJA. The website also provides a platform for the Center to highlight emerging and promising practices in successful ERPO implementation and connect states and localities to innovative strategies to reduce gun violence and save lives. ...

Justice Dept press release

[libertybele]

Thomas Massie
@RepThomasMassie
What the hell is this evil?
A Federal Red Flag center;
We did not authorize this.
Announced, of course, just hours after the omnibus passes.
8:57 AM · Mar 23, 2024Justice Dept press release

IOW that omnibus wasn't read...and people are complaining that MTG is trying to oust Johnson???

Anyway you look at this, this is a FEDERAL red flag law.  So I do not believe states can override this in any way.  So much for HIPPA -- that's thrown out the window now.

[libertybele]

I thought the GOP controled the House.  /S

The GOP doesn't control squat.  Even when they had a larger majority in both the House and Senate they did nothing; thanks to McConnell and Ryan's leadership. Trump needs to take some blame as well.  He had a full majority and blew it!