What’s In The $1.7 Trillion Omnibus Spending Bill?

A proposed spending bill is facing opposition from top Republican lawmakers and right-rated media. The ‘omnibus’ bill is 4,155 pages long and would fund the federal government through September.

In Opposition: A writer in the National Review (Right Bias) criticized lawmakers’ rushed legislative strategy, determining it to be a “scandal” that “what is happening has become a completely ordinary way for business to be conducted in Washington.” This was echoed by the Wall Street Journal Opinion (Lean Right Bias) Editorial Board, which stated, “this is no way to govern in a democracy, but here we are.” Brad Polumbo (Lean Right Bias) decried the length of the bill and the limited time lawmakers have to examine it, determining that “most of them, Republicans and Democrats alike, are voting away trillions of our dollars without even reading the bill they're voting on.”

In Support: A writer in the Washington Post (Lean Left Bias) determined that lawmakers should support the bill despite its flaws, writing, “the question isn’t whether this bill measures up; it is about whether there is a preferable alternative. The answer, sadly, is that there are no better ways forward.” Vox (Left Bias) focused on one included element of the bill, the Electoral Count Reform Act, stating it would clear up “ambiguities in US law about how the presidential result is determined, and creates new safeguards against interference with the results,” adding that the bill was “designed specifically with Trump’s abuses of power in mind.”