"Waste Of The Week" on The National Desk: $1.5T Spending Bill Passed 24 Hours After Being Released 42_TND_$1.5T_bill

March 18, 2022 11:54 AM

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By ELISSA SALAMY | The National Desk

WASHINGTON (TND) — President Joe Biden signed a $1.5 trillion spending bill last week that passed in the House — but only 24 hours after the bill was released, according to watchdog group Open The Books.

“It was 2,700 pages long,” said Open​ The Books’ Adam Andrzejewski to The National Desk’s Jan Jeffcoat. “When lawmakers voted on this thing, they didn't know what they were voting on.”

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The bill includes about $14 billion in emergency funding to boost humanitarian aid, security and economic assistance for Ukraine.

Republicans cheered because the Department of Defense — their budget went up by 6%. Democrats cheered because the social service agencies and executive agencies — their spending went up by 7%,” said Andrzejewski. “However, it was passed so fast, nobody knew what was in there. And you and I are paying the bill.”

Andrzejewski said some of the “pet projects” included in the bill are $3 million for a fisherman’s coop facility in Guam and $1 million for a “farm-to-refrigerator training facility” in Pennsylvania. 

Open The Books is sponsoring a petition to prevent bills from being released and passed in a short timeframe, forcing a “72-hour, three-day timeout” to allow citizens and lawmakers to read the legislation.

“I've got 15,000 signatures on that petition at our website at OpenTheBooks.com,” said Andrzejewski.

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