With the year closing out and Congress going on holiday break, the new omnibus spending bill for 2023 is up for a vote. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announces a bipartisan "framework" of the bill, which House Republicans like Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL-19) take umbrage with.
In a recent appearance on NewsMax, Rep. Donalds criticizes McConnell for not including border security as a major facet of the compromised bill.
"Why on Earth are @LeaderMcConnell and the @SenateGOP agreeing to a "framework" for the Omnibus bill without demanding border security as a critical measure of the negotiations?" Rep. Donalds tweets, adding that "agreeing to the current deal by Democrats takes away any chance of securing the border next Congress."
Why on Earth are @LeaderMcConnell and the @SenateGOP agreeing to a "framework" for the Omnibus bill without demanding border security as a critical measure of the negotiations?
Agreeing to the current deal by Democrats takes away any chance of securing the border next Congress. pic.twitter.com/5BJY8imjPl
— Congressman Byron Donalds (@RepDonaldsPress) December 16, 2022
"This omnibus spending bill that Senate Republicans are agreeing to, that is a disaster," says Donalds. As he explains, "one of the ways you can get the administration to actually secure the border appropriately" is to actually make it a part of the funding. However, the way the nine-month omnibus stands, "what you are going to do is take away any lever of power from Republicans to secure the border."
Hence why Donalds calls signing the bill as-is in the Senate "outrageous." "Yeah, I'm looking at you, Mitch McConnell," he concludes, "you need to stop it immediately."
Such a position is in tune with Donalds' and presumptive Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy's (R-CA) previous demand for Republicans to make no major deals with Democrats until January, when the House GOP takes its majority.
As Donalds notes, neither President Biden nor Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) ever sought Republican votes in the past two years, so why should the GOP collaborate with the Democrats now?
