Senators oppose spending measure; Cheney one of nine House Republicans to back omnibus bill

CASPER —  Wyoming’s Sen. Cynthia Lummis’ attempts to rein in government spending failed Thursday as the U.S. Senate passed a $1.7 trillion spending package that will keep the government running through fiscal year 2023. 
The compilation of appropriations bills, called an omnibus, passed 68-29. 
The spending package is the last big piece of legislation Congress will vote on before the body resets in January. 
On Friday, the House approved the package by a 225-201 vote. 
Rep. Liz Cheney was one of nine Republicans to vote for the measure. 
Senators introduced the 4,155- page legislation on Monday. The bill includes nearly $773 billion for domestic programs and $858 billion in defense funding. 
Other extraneous provisions are also tacked on, like expansions for some Medicaid benefits, a TikTok ban for government devices, supplemental aid to Ukraine, and a measure to reform the presidential electoral vote-counting process. 
Lummis pushed two amendments in an attempt to deflate the amount of spending in the bill amid concerns about inflation and the nation’s more than $31 trillion of debt. 
One of those amendments would have created a national commission to oversee spending and fiscal reform, much like the 2010 Simpson-Bowles Commission co-chaired by Wyoming’s former Republican Sen. Al Simpson. 
“People across Wyoming have deep concerns about the amount of debt that our country continues to accumulate with no plan to pay it back,” Lummis said on the amendment. “Our economy is on an unsustainable trajectory and we are mortgaging the prosperity of future generations of Americans because of our addiction to spending.” 
She also cosponsored Wisconsin’s Sen. Ron Johnson’s amendment that would do away with the bill’s extraneous measures. 
“Amidst record high inflation, Congress should not be funding its members’ pet projects,” Lummis said. 
But neither of those amendments made it into the bill, and Lummis ended up voting against the spending package as a whole. 
“She will introduce legislation in the new Congress to continue to pursue spending reforms and cuts,” a spokesperson for Lummis said in a text to the Star-Tribune. 
Lummis’ spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to the Star-Tribune’s inquiry into what that legislation might look like. 
Wyoming’s Sen. John Barrasso was away from Washington on Thursday and did not vote on the omnibus bill. He was with his wife, Bobbi, as she continues treatment for cancer, he relayed through a spokesperson. 
Barrasso pointed to a letter that he and Lummis along with 12 other Republican senators signed this fall, urging their colleagues to reject anything but a “clean“ temporary spending bill “that contains no additional spending or extraneous policy riders.” 
“Failure to stand strong against lame-duck spending and caving to the Democrats will likely worsen inflation, prolong the current economic recession, and advance policies contained in the Biden administration’s progressive wishlist,” the letter reads. “The American people cannot afford another Washington feeding frenzy.” 
Barrasso reiterated Thursday that he remains “committed to reining in wasteful Washington spending and combating record-high inflation suffocating families across Wyoming.” 
One of the extraneous measures included in the bill — the provision to reform the Electoral Count Act, an 1887 law that outlines how presidential electoral votes are cast and counted — is something that Wyoming’s outgoing Rep. Liz Cheney pushed in the House with legislation that she introduced alongside sponsor Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif. 
The proposed reform, which comes in response to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, would clarify that the U.S. vice president can’t overturn the results of a presidential election, among other things. 
Since the spending package has to be passed by the end of Friday, including the electoral count reform measure in the bill could increase the measure’s chances of clearing Congress. 
Cheney’s spokesperson did not respond on Thursday to the Star-Tribune’s request for comment on the spending package. 
Wyoming’s Rep.-elect Harriet Hageman, who will take Cheney’s place in January, ripped into the spending package on Tuesday at the AmericaFest conference, an event hosted by Turning Point Action, a conservative nonprofit. 
“They’ve given a raise, or an increase in funding, to almost every single federal agency at the expense of every single person in this room,” she said during a short interview on stage with Tyler Bowyer, Turning Point’s chief operating officer. 
She highlighted her experience litigating against government agencies throughout her career as a land attorney, expressing vehement opposition to more spending. 
“We need to dramatically, dramatically, dramatically cut the budgets of every single one of these agencies and take power out of Washington D.C.,” she said. “It needs to return to the states.” 
Hageman called the omnibus bill a “$1.7 trillion mistake” in a Thursday statement relayed through her spokesperson, saying that the spending “pours gas on the fire” of inflation. 
“Ramming through a 4,155-page bill in just three days is also completely irresponsible, as no one could have had the time to understand everything that’s in it,” she continued. “If I were in Congress today, I would emphatically vote no.” 
Hageman did not offer comment when the Star-Tribune asked about her thoughts on the inclusion of the Electoral Count Act reform. 
 
This story was published on Dec. 24, 2022.