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Some Republican senators are poised to make their grievances known when the $1.2 trillion spending package unveiled by congressional leaders passes the House, as is expected, and reaches the upper chamber.
“I, of course, plan to push back on the utterly absurd, insulting and lawless suggestion that that is an appropriate legislative process,” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said after the legislative text for the appropriations measures was released shortly after midnight Thursday morning.
A partial government shutdown will occur if the package isn’t passed through both chambers and signed by President Biden by 12:01 a.m. Saturday.
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Republican senators appear likely to hold up the push to quickly pass the appropriations package before a government shutdown. (Getty Images)
Lee slammed the idea of being expected to vote on the bills on Friday.
“That’s why I went to the floor and I proposed a [continuing resolution] that would take us to April 12th,” he said, noting that his request was thwarted by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who objected.
According to Lee, “[t]hat is sad.”
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Lee expressed frustration with the lack of congressional procedure in the effort to pass the second slate of appropriations bills for fiscal 2024. (Bill Clark)
“This is a crazy way to run the country,” Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said about the amount of time senators had to review the 1,012-page spending package before a partial shutdown.
“The process is terrible,” said Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb. “We should have been voting on these bills individually last year, and I have concerns about how much we are spending in these bills.”
As for how it will fare among his colleagues on the floor, he predicted several amendments will be offered and that many will have problems with the bills themselves.
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Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a vocal fiscal hawk, slammed the appropriations measure.
“The current level of spending that is represented by this spending bill will add another $1.5 trillion to the debt,” he said. “I think that threatens our country and is a very important debate. We should be debating whether we should continue to have so much deficit.”
Prompted on whether he would seek to prolong the process as colleagues are expected to seek expedited passage, Paul said, “We’ll see.”
Paul slammed the amount of debt the appropriations bills would add as the national debt approaches $35 trillion. (Reuters/Nathan Howard)
Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., said he plans to wait until he sees what the House passes.
“I don’t have any real plan other than that,” he said. “I generally vote against [continuing resolutions] and minibuses out of principle.”
With the previous slate of funding bills, the expedited voting process was drawn out by frustrated Republican senators.
“I’m not going to vote for it,” Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said of the second slate of funding bills.
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But he said it was “hard to say” whether there would be greater resistance to the spending bills this time around.
Braun predicted there will similarly be a level of “uncertainty” when the latest package comes to the Senate. Several Republicans have notably reiterated criticisms of the process and content.
“But the one certain thing is we always get it done, even if it takes late hours to get it done,” he added.
Johnson said he won’t support the second group of government funding bills. (Reuters/Evelyn Hockstein)
The two-pronged appropriations bill approach was laid out in a continuing resolution passed late last month that designated the deadline for half of the funding measures as March 8 and the other half as March 22. The first slate of spending bills were ultimately passed by both the House and Senate, despite some vocal opposition from Republicans in both chambers.
The second group of bills could face additional hurdles because of the package’s late release. The text for the various bills was not unveiled until roughly two days before a partial shutdown would begin, frustrating Republicans who were already unhappy with the numerous continuing resolutions and lack of procedure.
Two sources told Fox News Digital that a vote on the package is expected in the House on the earlier side of Friday.
Fox News Digital’s Liz Elkind contributed to this report.
