Representative Ken Calvert wants to see Congress start the new year determined to never give rush treatment to a spending plan as he says it did with the fiscal year 2023 omnibus appropriations bill of $1.7 trillion, which President Biden has since signed off on.
Although Calvert (R-Corona) succeeded in getting a defense increase and other provisions included in the bill, he opposes the way the House of Representatives dealt with the spending measure in what he sees as extreme haste.
“The Fiscal Year 2023 omnibus appropriations bill is more than 4,000 pages long and incorporates a year’s worth of work by the Appropriations Committee as well as a host of other significant policy changes. I wholeheartedly agree that the process of crafting the bill and rush to pass it before the holidays are a terrible way to govern," Calvert (R-Corona) said in a press release.
Calvert is calling for a reformed timetable for next year's appropriations bill approval, one that is less hurried and more insightful with the taxpayers' dollars.
"The Republican-controlled House in the next Congress must do everything in its power to ensure we don’t find ourselves in a similar position next year,” Calvert said.
Although Calvert blasted the bill for the hasty treatment he says it received, it does reflect increased funding for the Defense Department, which Calvert managed to secure, according to the press release. Specifically, this defense funding goes to the Accelerate the Procurement and Fielding of Innovative Technologies (APFIT) program designed to fast-track tech advances that could benefit U.S. troops. Calvert took charge of the initiative to establish APFIT in the Fiscal Year 2022 Defense Appropriations bill, his release said. The 2023 bill boosts APFIT funding by $50 million, raising the program’s total funding to $150 million.
Despite the reservations of House Republicans, President Biden signed the appropriations bill into law while on vacation in the U.S. Virgin Islands, according to CNN. The budgeted $1.7 trillion authorizes funding for medical research, safety, veteran health care, disaster recovery and assistance to Ukraine. Biden referred to the bill as capping off a “year of historic progress.”
Calvert’s concern about the lateness of the bill was echoed by Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), who in a news release, described the approach to appropriations as “chaos by design.” Calvert and Cassidy are about to take over the House of Representatives as the majority party, and both say they hope to change that process. “Over a trillion dollars in taxpayer dollars are being spent with little to no notice or public discussion,” Cassidy said.