Rep. Gosar Votes against Business as Usual, Arming Syrian Rebels

Rep. Gosar Votes against Business as Usual, Arming Syrian Rebels

"I could not support this panicked reaction to "do something" that is not thought out and lacks a winnable strategy"

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Congressman Paul A. Gosar, D.D.S. (AZ-04) released the following statement after voting against H.J.Res.124, the Continuing Appropriations Resolution, which included the McKeon Amendment, also known as Authorizing Assisting, Training and Supplying Syrian Opposition. H.J.Res.124 ultimately passed the House with a vote of 319-108 despite Congressman Gosar’s opposition:

"The Continuing Resolution (CR) is another admission that the Senate has again failed to pass a budget. I voted against it because of the inappropriate time line that punts the budgeting issue to a lame duck Congress. I also opposed this stopgap measure because it contains no spending reforms. Additionally, this flawed legislation reauthorizes the Ex-IM Bank, a form of crony capitalism we need to phase out. I was not sent to DC to continue business as usual, and I will continue to fight against it.

"The House has made an honest effort to return to a normal order of creating and appropriating a budget in an open manner that encourages a dialogue with the American people. In fact, the House passed 7 different appropriations bills in 2014. Shamefully, the Senate did not pass a signal appropriations bill. For my part, I introduced 27 amendments, with 21 of them successfully passing the House and positively affected almost one billion dollars in federal spending. This short term punt of the CR undermines the work done to root out federal waste, fraud and abuse in federal spending.

"Furthermore, the McKeon Amendment which approved of the President’s plan for dealing with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is a poor strategy. I voted against arming violent death squads that have no loyalty to the United States or our values. We have no allies in Syria. We should not be spending precious taxpayer money and jeopardizing the lives of our soldiers to help one terrorist group fight another terrorist group. Further, Congress has not declared war, as is required under the Constitution. We cannot fund a war that we have not officially declared. Several generals and foreign policy experts have stated that it will take American boots on the ground to finish the job and dismantle ISIS. The President continues to make clear this is not an option, even contradicting military advisors within his own administration. I have serious concerns about the President’s plan or lack thereof. As such, I could not support this panicked reaction to "do something" that is not thought out and lacks a winnable strategy."

Background:

The Senate did not pass a budget resolution, as required by law, for the fourth time in the last five years and the Senate did not pass a single appropriations bill for the third year in a row.

A list of Rep. Gosar’s amendments for the FY 15 Appropriations bill can be found HERE.

The current authorization for Ex-Im Bank expires on September 30, 2014. The last reauthorization, H.R. 2072, passed the House by a vote of 330-93 on May 9, 2012 without Rep. Gosar’s support. 

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