Congress Update

Late last week Congress hurried out of town after passing a Continuing Resolution funding the government until January 19. The resolution extends Sec 702 of the FISA Act until January 19. This is a small victory for Campaign for Liberty members who defeated efforts to attach a long term extension of 702 to the bill.

The Continuing Resolution increases defense spending by $4.7 billion. This spending is emergency spending and so is not offset by other cuts. The bill also delays cuts in sequestration, so even the limited cuts in sequestration are to much for our supposedly fiscally conservative congress.

The House also passed an $81 billion emergency disaster spending bill. The emergency designation means that the spending is added to the barons credit card.

Senator Rand Paul tired to force the Senate to adhere to the budget caps but only seven Senators supported his efforts:

Mike Crapo (R-ID)

Ted Cruz (R-TX)

Jeff Flake (R-AZ)

John Kennedy (R-LA)

Mike Lee (R-UT)

James Risch (R-ID)

Ben Sasse (R-NE)

Here are the House roll-call votes on the Continuing Resolution, and the disaster aide bill. Here is the Senate vote on the Continuing Resolution.

Ignore the bill number and description of the bill. Congressional leadership used a bill already passed to speed passage of the bill and avoid the Committee process.