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News from the Keweenaw Peninsula Posted December 9, 2003 Press releases © 2003 U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Menominee) and © 2003 Upper Peninsula MoveOn.org Media Center

Stupak votes "No" on huge Omnibus Bill

The bill, H.R. 2673, is an attempt by Congressional leadership to wrap up seven annual appropriations bills that were not dealt with individually in this year's session. It covers spending for the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, State, Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Transportation, Treasury, Veterans Affairs and the U.S. Postal Service as well as operation of the District of Columbia and Foreign Operations.

"We need to work through these important spending bills one by one, in a careful fashion, rather than piling them all together and allowing one yes or no vote on the whole thing." Stupak said. "This bloated bill -- 3,000 pages -- was put together in closed-door meetings with only Republicans present. There was no chance for reasoned debate or even discussion of many of the provisions that have now been passed by the House."

"I could not vote for a bill that made policy decisions to eliminate overtime for many middle-income workers, that makes it impossible to re-import cheaper prescription drugs from Canada or other countries, that weakens the Clean Air Act and that provides for outsourcing jobs at the Department of Defense," Stupak said.

He also noted that the bill funds education at $7.8 billion dollars less than promised by the highly publicized "No Child Left Behind" program authorization and funds critical National Institutes of Health (NIH) programs at net levels that do not even cover inflation from last year, $145 million less than the House approved earlier this year. 

The bill must now be acted on by the Senate.

MoveOn.org says Omnibus Bill "full of corporate handouts"

According to the MoveOn.org organization, the 2003 Omnibus spending bill (H.R. 2673) constitutes the biggest spending bill in U.S. history, a bill "Packed full of corporate handouts and pork for Bush and GOP campaign contributors."

Thousands of volunteer members of MoveOn.Org around the country are generating petitions, outreach to local news media and phone calls to Congress to protest the bill. At the same time, the MoveOn.org Voter Fund has launched a national cable network television and newspaper ad exposing "The most outrageous Christmas List in History" -- a laundry list of early Christmas gifts from George W. Bush and the Republican Congress to their special interest friends and contributors in Washington.

But there is more than just money that is of concern to MoveOn supporters. They say the Omnibus spending bill has become a devious device by which the Bush Administration is attempting to nullify overtime pay protection that was recently passed by both houses of Congress. Under this plan, employers would be able to deny an employee's overtime pay of up to 160 hours in exchange for that amount of time off the following year. This assumes the company is still in business at that time and still maintains the same staff level.

Another provision of the Omnibus bill proposes to allow consolidation of media outlets in excess of what current law allows. This would vastly reduce the chance of local media companies to compete with the few "Mega" outlets.

Regarding recently passed Medicare Reform legislation, MoveOn claims the world's already most profitable industry will gain an estimated $139 billion in increased profits over the next eight years.

Congressman Stupak voted against this bill.* 

The upcoming Omnibus Spending Bill and the Medicare Reform Bill follow close on the heels of the $87 Billion Iraq Defense Appropriations Bill which provided defense and oil contractors with billions in "no-bid" contracts. According to a new study by the Center for Public Integrity, more than 70 American companies and individuals have won up to $8 billion in contracts for work in postwar Iraq and Afghanistan over the last two years.

All this deficit spending, directed by Bush Administration economic policies and passed by a GOP-controlled Congress, has drawn sharp criticism and caution by several conservative think-tanks, such as the Concord Coalition, the Center for Economic Development, and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. In a joint press conference, these groups warned that the budget outlook is much worse than the official CBO baseline indicates, and called for decisive action for reigning in the federal deficit.

Conservatives from Rush Limbaugh to Senator John McCain have recently criticized the Republican-controlled Congress for passing spending bills which constitute the biggest expansion of government in a generation.

Limbaugh, talk-show host and dean of the Limbaugh Institute for Conservative Studies, publicly chastised both the President and Congress on his Nov. 25th radio program for "growing government even bigger" with the passage of the recent Medicare reform legislation. Such spending, Limbaugh charged, violates the most basic principles of conservatism.

McCain, Republican Senator from Arizona and second-ranking Republican member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, claims that his colleagues in Congress are spending money like "drunken sailors" as they propose provisions for the upcoming "Omnibus" Spending Bills.

* Read Rep. Stupak's letter to constituents on the Medicare bill.

For Rep. Stupak's views on current issues, including the War in Iraq, visit his Web site.

MoveOn.org lists examples of the pork in the Omnibus Spending Bill, including $50,000,000 to build an indoor rainforest in Iowa; $2,000,000 for the First Tee Program, to get young people into golf; $405,000 for industrial lubricants research in Iowa; $4,000,000 for the International Fertilizer Development Center and more.

Editor's Notes: Michigan concerned citizens can contact their U. S. Senators as follows: Senator Debbie Stabenow DC Phone: 202-224-4822 Local Phone: 517-203-1760 Senator Carl Levin DC Phone: 202-224-6221 Local Phone: 313-226-6020 For an update on the House of Representatives Floor Proceedings, visit the Web site of the Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives. For more legislative information visit the Library of Congress Thomas Web site. Citizens may contact Stupak's Washington office at (202) 225-4735 or email him at stupak@mail.house.gov. His Congressional Aide Amy Wisti may be reached in Houghton from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at (906) 482-1371.