The U.S. Congress is debating a spending package ahead of a government shutdown deadline on Friday, the day after President Biden's scheduled "State of the Union" address.
Congress passed a bill last week to extend the first appropriations deadline to Friday, March 8 and the second to Friday, March 22.
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said the first six appropriations bills contain a whopping 605 pages of earmarks.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said that earmarks "Corrupt government" and they "Turn Republicans Democrat." "No Republican should support them. No Republican should vote for this bill," Lee wrote on his X account.
"What we've done is just for the sake of time traded what we call an omnibus, one of these huge spending bills that everything's in there they throw everything in there, there's not the individual bills with individual votes, we usually get that right before December, right before Christmas in December, that's going to be broken into two smaller bills in March but it'll have the same effect," he said.
There are 30 pages of earmarks in the Energy and Water Development appropriations bill alone.
Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan, D-Va., boasted on X that she successfully added 15 earmarks to the 2024 appropriations bills.
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