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This week, Congress passed an appropriations package to completely fund the departments of Homeland Security, Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, Transportation, State, the Interior, the Treasury and the Environmental Protection Agency for Fiscal Year 2019 at Republican-passed funding levels from the 115th Congress. This legislation reflects a bipartisan compromise between the House and Senate to fulfill Congress’s responsibility to maintain a fully functioning government and provide for the nation’s security. While it does not provide the full amount necessary to secure our borders, it’s a long way from the $1 Speaker Pelosi was willing to provide toward a physical border barrier. It includes $22.54 billion for border security, including 55 miles of new physical barriers, surveillance, technology and personnel to combat illegal immigration and human and drug trafficking. The bill also funds additional immigration judge teams to address the backlog of immigration cases in the judicial system.
In addition to the Department of Homeland Security provisions, I also want to highlight that this bill provides funding for numerous programs and essential government functions such as food safety and inspections, enforcement of sanctions, counterterrorism, drug modernization, rural broadband expansion, drug treatment and recovery initiatives and clean water infrastructure—just to name a few.
The bill also maintains all pro-life language included in bills enacted last Congress under the Republican majority. It bans the FDA from approving genetic modification of human embryos, funding of abortion coverage in the Federal Employee Health Benefit plan and funding of abortion in DC with federal and local revenues. Furthermore, it rejects Democrats’ attempt to roll back President Trump’s Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance policy.
With anti-Semitic rhetoric ramping up within a faction of the Democratic Caucus this week, House Republicans called for a vote on a motion to oppose anti-Semitism in all forms. Astonishingly, there were voices in the chamber expressing dissent during the voice vote. After being called for a recorded vote so that members could not vote anonymously, the motion passed 424 – 0. While work clearly remains to uproot misguided and Anti-Semitic rhetoric, I applaud this action to denounce such hate and support the bipartisan consensus on policy toward Israel. Watch the floor proceedings here or read more in this Washington Examiner article.
| ICYMI: Senate Side Update |
On Tuesday, the Senate Intelligence Committee announced that it will soon wrap up its investigation of the alleged collusion between President Trump and Russia during the 2016 election—without finding evidence corroborating those allegations. Of course, the mainstream media, which frequently reports on the possibility of collusion, has barely covered this news. Read more in this Washington Times article.
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Next week, the House will hold a District Work Period. I look forward to traveling around North Carolina’s Fifth District and hearing from you!
Sincerely,
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