The vote on the omnibus spending bill is expected to take place this afternoon, around 1:30pm.
“Assuming all goes according to plan, we think we’ll vote around 10:30 a.m. first series, procedural votes and then the omnibus, probably in the 12:30 to 1:30 window if all goes according to plan for tomorrow,” a GOP leadership aide said in a statement.
After numerous frantic, back room dealings, and last-minute reworking of the bill, it seems ready for passage. The bill includes measures to provide the highest pay raise for the military in decades.
“It’s a bill that’s got a lot of important wins for President Trump, this is a bill he supports because it funds our nation’s defense, gives our troops a pay raise that they’ve been needing for 10 years,” said Steve Scalise, the House Majority Whip.
“It brings back air superiority — You know we’re tired of seeing planes fall out of the sky and training exercises in us losing great servicemen and women. Our troops deserve better. And this bill gives them the tools that they need,” added Scalise, saying they are still working on the measure. “There is a lot a lot left to do. Obviously, we just started talking to our members since it just got filed.”
However, not all were pleased. Fiscal Hawks, and Conservatives in the House are not in the favor of the bill, saying that the lawmakers are not getting enough time to properly review the new bill.
“The policy proposals outlined in this $1.3 trillion spending bill are not consistent with what we told the American people we would do when they sent us to Washington. Many of the policies in the bill are in fact the opposite of what we promised. This bill barely provides for border security, yet continues to allow federal dollars to flow to sanctuary cities,” said the House Freedom Caucus in a statement.
“It includes the ‘Fix NICS’ proposal, without including reciprocity for Americans with concealed carry licenses—something congressional leadership promised would not happen,” added the House Freedom Caucus. “It also fully funds grants that go to Planned Parenthood while making no changes to reduce Obamacare’s burdensome regulations on America’s families.”
The rule voting, however, might prove to be a greater hurdle for the new bill but Democrats are not in the favor of rules and usually vote against them, no matter what the underlying legislation is. In addition, members of the Freedom Caucus have strongly criticized the omnibus due to the spending levels contained within the package, and the limited amount of time the lawmakers were given to go through the bill and measure its pros and cons.
