(CNSNews.com) -- When asked whether he would read all 2,741 pages of the Omnibus Spending Bill before voting on it, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said, “My team and I will read all of it,” and added that it is “full of bad stuff.”
On Thursday evening, the bill passed in the Senate (68-31) and was sent to President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature.
Hawley voted no on the $1.5 trillion legislation.
At the Capitol on Thursday afternoon, CNSNews.com asked Sen. Hawley, “Will you read all of the 2,741 pages of the omnibus spending bill before you vote on it?”
The senator said, “We will. My team and I will read all of it. In fact, I hold in my hand, as I speak with you, the latest summary of what we’ve been through so far and I’m getting these in batches because we have been going through it since it first became available for us. So, yes, we will. I can tell you it is full of bad stuff, lots of bad stuff, yeah.”
The omnibus spending bill, H.R. 2471, which will keep the fedral government funded through September, was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on March 9. The military spending part of the bill passed 361 to 69; the domestic spending sections passed 260 to 171.
The package is $1.5 trillion and runs to 2,741 pages, according to The Hill. The bill has over 4,000 earmarks.
According to a House Committee on Appropriations press release, H.R. 2471 provides $1.5 trillion in discretionary resources across the year 2022 appropriations bills. The package includes the 12 fiscal appropriations bills for 2022 along with funding worth $13.6 billion to Ukraine. Roll Call sates that the Rules Committee pulled the $15.6 billion for COVID-19 funding from the package to be its own, separate bill.