Shutting down the government and not funding our troops was not an option for Congressman Don Bacon (NE-02) as he voted yes for the Omnibus bill that will fund government operations including the military through September 2017.  This Omnibus bill strengthens our military, border enforcement, and the National Institute for Health while keeping the IRS and EPA at reduced levels.  I am pleased to see compromise on the demands to raise domestic spending dollar for dollar with defense spending.

“As someone who deployed four times overseas to combat zones, I know how important it is to guarantee that our men and women in uniform have the training and equipment needed to maintain their readiness,” said Congressman Bacon. “For the first time in eight years, we are providing a budget that will help the military reverse the course of falling readiness.  They are relying on us to uphold our good faith promise to provide them with the training, maintenance, and modernization of equipment and facilities that are critical to achieving their mission.”

While the bill contains spending for areas that Congressman Bacon does not support, it is unacceptable to continue to fund our nation’s critical needs via a continuing resolution or accept the prospect of a government shutdown, both of which would further damage our military and national security.  Further, he was convinced if the bill failed, the next iteration would likely be worse and result in more spending.

Congressman Bacon also said Congress needs to get back to debating each bill separately. There are 12 sub-committees that develop appropriation bills for different areas of government, but an omnibus bill combines all of them and ties their funding to each other.

“This bill did not allow for the open debate normally afforded by the budget process and by lumping them all together Congress is rushing to get something done versus getting something done right,” said Congressman Bacon. “This is not the bill I would have written, but it’s better than the continuing resolutions and government shutdowns. While we are beginning to move in the right direction, any further budget bills must adhere to the rigorous process of developing and debating the 12 individual appropriations bills before coming to the House floor.  This bill will at least start to restore our national security.”