Last week, Congress finally passed and sent to President Joe Biden’s desk a full-year funding package for fiscal year 2022 that also included supplemental money to support our national security response in the wake of Putin’s unprovoked aggression against Ukraine. Considering that the fiscal year represented by this package began on October 1 of last year, this action was months overdue. Unfortunately, the process was needlessly drawn out by Democrats, who refused to get serious about negotiating in good faith with Republicans and instead wasted time trying to advance wildly expensive and partisan proposals. However, at the end of the day, the resulting bipartisan, bicameral package passed last week is better late than never.
Although it is not the legislation that I would have personally written, it represents a good compromise and includes numerous provisions that provide for the real priorities and funding needs of our country. Moreover, the compromise addressed several key sticking points that I have mentioned numerous times. In particular, four conditions needed to be met for a deal to be struck between both parties – defense spending had to go up, domestic had to come down, poison pill riders had to be removed and longstanding pro-life language had to be restored. And I am proud to report all of this was true with the omnibus funding package.
First, the omnibus rightly increases national defense spending by $29 billion over prior fiscal year levels, including a well-deserved 2.7 percent pay raise for our military. With mounting tensions around the world, this is an important first step to ensure our service members are equipped for whatever mission they are tasked with to defend freedom and keep us all safe. This appropriations package also provides a historic funding level of $14.9 billion for new military construction projects, including $85 million for the KC-46A three-bay depot maintenance hangar at the Fourth District’s own Tinker Air Force Base. And among other important provisions in the defense portion, it includes $1 billion for Israel’s Iron Dome to replace the interceptors that were damaged in the most recent conflict as well as an increase in spending to ensure the U.S. can counter Chinese aggression.
In addition to completing funding for the 12 annual government funding titles, the omnibus authorizes and provides $13.6 billion for critical military assistance in the midst of the Russia-Ukraine crisis. This includes resources to support U.S. troop deployments to defend our NATO allies in the region, to enforce sanctions and to counter rising cyber threats.
The omnibus not only reins in the bloated domestic spending originally proposed by President Biden and Democrats, but when adjusted for inflation, the now-modest increase delivers an effective cut. It also rightly excludes poison-pill riders, added by Democrats earlier in the process, that don’t belong in appropriations bills and that should pass on their own merit in separate, standalone legislation. Examples of egregious provisions removed include extreme labor regulations and Green New Deal-like policies.
Following Democratic attempts to remove longstanding and traditionally bipartisan pro-life protections earlier in the appropriations process, I am encouraged that they were fully restored in the omnibus passed by both chambers last week. Most notably, this includes restoration of the Hyde and Weldon amendments that protect the conscience rights of all Americans. First enacted in 1976, the Hyde Amendment rightly prohibits taxpayer dollars from funding abortions. And the Weldon Amendment protects American doctors, nurses and other health care professionals from participating in or providing an abortion if they have a moral objection.
Finally, I was delighted the omnibus delivered several funding wins for Oklahoma that will benefit and improve our communities. To name a few, this includes projects to improve infrastructure, support biomedical research at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, expand access to quality care in rural areas, support health emergency preparedness and strengthen resources available for mental health services.
Although the funding package passed by Congress was long overdue and far from perfect, it still represents legislation that we can be proud of. Indeed, it realizes bolstered funding to provide for our national security, adequately funds priorities at home, restores longstanding pro-life protections, does away with poison-pill riders and brings needed dollars directly to our state.