H.R. 2471, officially known as the “Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022,” would provide $1.5 trillion in discretionary appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2022 for federal government operations and services. Among the many unconstitutional and wasteful spending provisions in the bill was $13.6 billion in assistance to Ukraine against Russia, over $100 billion on Green New Deal-based initiatives, and $45 billion for the National Institutes of Health, which amounts to a 10-percent increase for the NIH from the previous fiscal year.
The Senate passed H.R. 2471 on March 10, 2022 by a vote of 68 to 31 (Roll Call 78). We have assigned pluses to the nays because with this omnibus bill, members of Congress are again failing to address their fiscally and constitutionally irresponsible budgeting and appropriating process that is currently yielding record-high inflation and increasing the already ballooning federal deficits, in addition to minimizing their accountability to their constituents by combining all discretionary federal spending for fiscal 2022 into one gigantic “go big or go home” bill.
