No comment on Trump indictment from the MAGA-bashing Biden White House.
(CNSNews.com) -- When asked whether he would read all 2,741 pages of the Omnibus Spending Bill before voting on it, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said, “We’re trying to get through it, but I’m not sure it’s physically possible."
On Thursday evening, the bill passed in the Senate (68-31) and was sent to President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature.
Senator Paul voted no on the $1.5 trillion legislation.
At the Capitol on Thursday afternoon, CNSNews.com asked Sen. Paul, “Will you read all of the 2,741 pages of the Omnibus Spending Bill before you vote on it?”
The senator said, “We’re trying to get through it, but I’m not sure it’s physically possible. That’s why one of the reasons I’ll oppose it, is that I think it’s too short of time.”
“We actually have a bill that we introduced that says that you should have one day of waiting for every 20 pages of text and, so, under my bill this—we’d wait over 100 days to read a bill this long,” he said, “and if we were to pass my bill it would allow an incentive to have shorter bills and more time to read them.”
“So, if they really cared about passing a good bill, they’d allow amendments that would have gone through committee, and they would do a continuing resolution until people have time to read it,” said Paul. “But it’s par for the course around here that people are—they're very sloppy with budgeting and that’s why we’re $30 trillion in debt.”
The omnibus spending bill, H.R. 2471, which will keep the federal 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.