No More Omnibus Spending, Say Republicans

One of the first things Republicans will attempt to do when they take control of the House in January will be to crackdown on Congress’ practice of passing omnibus spending bills.

As part of their “Pledge To America,” released in August, GOP leaders in the House promised to get serious about lowering the nation’s deficit by imposing spending cuts. GOP’ers have been warning for weeks now that Democrats will attempt to pass a bill during the lame-duck session that would set the budgets of several governmental departments at once.

Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.) is one of those who is not in favor of allowing that to happen before the end of the year.

“We will propose changes to the House Rules to make it harder to increase spending and easier to make cuts,” he said in a statement released on Tuesday. “Republicans also plan to end the practice of passing “comprehensive” or “omnibus” bills, which has just become a way to roll spending into one bill without ensuring that it has been subjected to the requisite review and scrutiny by the elected Members of Congress.”