Veto the Omnibus Spending Bill

(Washington, D.C.) - The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) today urged President Barack Obama to veto the $446.8 billion omnibus spending bill.  The bill, H.R. 3288, passed the House of Representatives on December 10, 2009 and the Senate on December 13, 2009.  The omnibus is an amalgamation of six of the seven remaining fiscal year (FY) 2010 spending bills:  Transportation, Housing and Urban Development; Commerce, Justice, Science; Labor/Health and Human Services, and Education; State and Foreign Operations; Financial Services and General Government, and Military Construction, Veterans Affairs.  The omnibus appropriations bill contains thousands of earmarks worth billions of dollars and an average 12 percent increase in the departments and agencies funded in the six appropriations bills. 

“No President in recent memory has publicly condemned wasteful spending and the corruptive culture of congressional pork-barrel spending more often than President Obama,” said Schatz.  “As recently as December 8, 2009, during a speech at the Brookings Institution, he declared that one of the central goals of his administration was to ‘restore fiscal responsibility,’ stating that his administration had ‘refused to go along with business as usual,’ that it was ‘taking responsibility for every dollar’ it spends. 

“He went even further, claiming to have already ‘done what some said was impossible:  preventing wasteful spending on outdated weapons systems that even the Pentagon said it didn’t want,’ and that he has ‘combed the budget, cutting waste and excess.’  Actions speak louder than words, Mr. President.  Give the taxpayers the gift that will keep on giving for decades to come by vetoing this bloated omnibus.  This bill richly deserves a veto, which would go a long way toward allowing fiscal reality to catch up to presidential rhetoric,” said Schatz. 

CCAGW is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, the nation’s largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government