Shimkus Supports Appropriations Package

Washington, DC - Following the budget agreement Chairman Paul Ryan reached in December, the House passed an omnibus appropriations bill implementing federal government funding for fiscal year 2014 on Wednesday.  Congressman John Shimkus (R, Illinois-15) voted for the bipartisan package.

The discretionary portion of the budget includes all spending outside of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and interest on the debt.  This includes $520.5 billion in defense spending, and $491.7 billion in non-defense spending in FY14.

“There are several items in the overall bill that are either important to specific regions or for constituents across the district,” Shimkus noted.

Items of note include:

• Ensuring disabled veterans and surviving families are not impacted by the cost-of-living reductions in the earlier Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013.
• The Hyde Amendment and other bans on federal funding of abortions continue in this appropriations package as in years past.
• Language that assists the levee repairs ongoing in the metro-east area.
• A one year delay in national flood insurance rate increases.
• No new funding is allocated to implementation of Obamacare, and the Prevention and Public Health Fund is reduced by $1 billion.
• The closure of rural post offices and stopping Saturday delivery is prohibited.
• The Export-Import Bank is prohibited from blocking coal power plants in developing nations.
• The Department of Homeland Security will be required to provide detailed reports on its purchases and use of ammunition, in response to possible stockpiling by the government.
• Closing the chancery at the U.S. Embassy in the Holy See and merging it with the U.S. Embassy in Rome is prohibited.
• The number of detention beds for Immigration and Customs Enforcement rises to 34,000, the highest capacity in history.
• The IRS is banned from targeting “groups for regulatory scrutiny based on their ideological beliefs or to target citizens for exercising their First Amendment rights.”
• Funding for enforcement of the ban on incandescent light bulbs is banned.

The bill passed 359-67, and the Senate is expected to vote on the bill Friday.

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