Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa made the following comment on the omnibus spending bill approved today by the Senate.
“Even though this is an effort to govern and try to reverse the Senate’s abdication of its responsibilities to process annual appropriations bills, the bill falls short in achieving true savings and turning around the country’s fiscal outlook. The appropriations process should be methodical and thorough and ideally allow for all members to have input through an open, transparent amendment process. An omnibus approach -- especially on a $1.1 trillion spending bill -- doesn’t achieve the kind of scrutiny there ought to be. Unfortunately, the budget deal passed in December and this appropriations bill go beyond the spending level that was set in the Budget Control Act enacted in 2011. We should keep those levels. The problem continues to be that Washington spends too much, not that people are taxed too little. While I agree with a number of the policy matters in the bill, I voted no because of the overall level of spending being too high and over the amount agreed to in the Budget Control Act.”