Following the passage of the coronavirus relief package and government funding legislation in two separate votes, Rep. Chip Roy (TX-R) was among Republicans who voted against both packages.
Monday night saw both chambers of Congress pass a $900 billion relief measure designed to provide long-awaited assistance to Americans, small businesses and industries ailing from the coronavirus pandemic. The package is paired with a $1.4 trillion omnibus spending bill that funds the federal government through September 2021.
The House of Representatives vote divided the measures into two parts which allowed members to vote against military and Homeland Security funding without jeopardizing the package carrying economic stimulus money. Both votes passed. Part One, which included the Defense; Commerce, Justice, Science; Homeland Security; and Financial Services sections of the omnibus, passed 327-85, with 41 Democrats and 43 Republicans voting against it. Part Two, which comprised eight spending bills including the COVID relief bill, passed 359-53 with 50 Republicans and two Democrats against it.
Included amongst the Republicans who voted against both funding packages was Chip Roy, who denounced the bill as “legislative malpractice” on Twitter.
“5,600 pages, my staff literally just got it. Lobbyists have already seen it. And I’ve got six hours to decide how to vote. And I don’t think a bloated spending bill of $2.4 trillion that happens to have a few good provisions in it for small businesses, is what’s gonna be good for the health of our country,” Roy stated on FOX Business. “It is absurd how this works. There’s so much crap buried in this bill.
Roy added in a statement Tuesday: “I voted ‘no’ on both spending measures because I will neither endorse a corrupt legislative process nor agree to pass legislation that actively harms our nation, as this bill will assuredly do. It will rack up debt, fund the very local governments locking down schools and businesses, extend federal subsidies to pay people more not to work than to work, fall short on desperately needed small business relief, and continue funding policies… that undermine our American way of life.”
