Congress Unveils Radical $1.7 Trillion Spending Bill

Looking to avert a government shutdown on December 23, America’s lawmakers introduced a mammoth $1.7 trillion spending bill yesterday. But this omnibus bill is also a vehicle for many radical agendas. The bill was released at 2 a.m. and is over 4,000 pages long. Advocates of the bill are calling for Congress to forgo debate and just pass it as soon as possible.

The largest part of the bill is the $858 billion in military spending. Non-defense discretionary spending is at $730 billion. It includes $45 billion for Ukraine and $40 billion in weather-related disaster funding. But the bill also includes:

• $13 billion for the Internal Revenue Service, in addition to the $80 billion Congress approved earlier this year
• $11.3 billion for the Federal Bureau of Investigation
• $3 billion for United States attorneys working on January 6 and domestic terrorists
• $2 billion for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
• $1.4 billion for the United Nations and other global organizations
• $575 million for “family planning” in areas where population growth “threatens biodiversity”
• $335 million to prepare for an influenza pandemic, including expanding the use of “surveillance tools”
• $286 million for Planned Parenthood
• $26 million for the House of Representatives’ Office of Diversity and Inclusion

Additionally, the bill provides $400 million in border security for Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia and Oman. But it expressly prohibits the use of Customs and Border Protection funds from being used to improve U.S. border security. There are also hundreds of billions thrown at building lgbtq+ museums and parks, a “Michelle Obama Trail,” federal buildings named after Nancy Pelosi, and so much more. There’s even $65 million dedicated to salmon.

Electoral Count Act: Perhaps the most radical part of the bill is in electoral count reform, something that has nothing to do with government spending. Essentially, it is to change the 1887 Electoral Count Act, the legal basis on which President Donald Trump wanted Vice President Mike Pence to act following the 2020 election steal. It is what radicals tried to paint as insurrectionist. Now they are trying to change the law so that Trump would never be able to use it in the future.

This spending bill contains many necessary parts, but also a myriad of unnecessary ones. It is basically a way to fund lawlessness, something this administration has been doing since Barack Obama was in office. To learn more, please read “Law Under Attack,” Chapter 2 in America Under Attack.