(CNSNews.com) -- When asked whether she would read all 2,741 pages of the Omnibus Spending Bill before voting on it, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) said, “It’s unlikely I will read all [of] those pages, but I’ll certainly have had many debriefs here in the last 24 hours.”
Sen. Capito ultimately voted yes on the bill, which passed the Senate later Thursday by a 68-31 vote and awaits President Joe Biden's signature.
At the Capitol on Thursday, CNSNews.com asked Sen. Capito, “Will you read all of the 2,741 pages of the omnibus spending bill before you vote on it?”
The senator said, “Well, I wrote part of it, and know the part, my part — Homeland Security very well. It’s unlikely I will read all [of] those pages, but I’ll certainly have had many debriefs here in the last 24 hours.”
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.