Press Releases

Today, Rep. French Hill (AR-02) released the following statement after rejecting House Democrats’ latest spending bill, H.R. 7608.

“Twelve months ago House Republicans negotiated in good faith a two-year bipartisan budget, and today, House Democrats led by Speaker Pelosi ripped up that agreement in favor of their big-government, big-spending wish list to prioritize to their extreme policy agenda – such as underfunding every one of the Justice Department’s federal law enforcement agencies – over the hardworking, taxpaying Arkansas families who are struggling. 

“Once again Speaker Pelosi has charged ahead with a bill that is all messaging and no action and that will never even be considered in the Senate – a disappointing, but not surprising, failure of leadership by Speaker Pelosi – and a stark comparison to Republicans who are offering real solutions to aid our struggling economy, get our kids and teachers back to school safely, and make sure America has the health care resources we need to fight COVID-19 – the actual things that Arkansans and Americans care about right now.”

Background:

H.R. 7608 was introduced on July 13, and it passed in the House on July 24, by a vote of 224-189. It represents 4 of the 12 annual appropriations bills and includes funding for, among other activities, the State, Foreign Operations, Agriculture, Rural Development, Interior, Environment, Military Construction, and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act, 2021.

Some highlights of H.R. 7608 include:

• Providing over $37 billion as “emergency spending”
• $15 billion is for the Democrats’ partisan infrastructure bill
• $10 billion is for coronavirus relief, even though the Democrats passed a $3 trillion supplemental

• Prohibiting Trump Administration reforms to reduce regulatory burdens.

• Recklessly limiting America’s domestic energy production by restricting oil and gas production and preventing new offshore energy exploration and prohibiting the mining of metals in northern Minnesota.

• Permanently preventing this and any future Administration from making changes to welfare programs that simply require working age, non-disabled adults without children to go back to work in times of low unemployment.

• Not funding the border wall.

• Placing restrictions on the President’s ability to secure our border.

• Failing to properly fund ICE and detention of illegal immigrants.

• Including numerous partisan, poison pill riders that restrict the ability of the commander-in-chief to respond to emergencies.

• Placing conditions on state and local law enforcement to receive grant funding and advances the “defund the police” agenda.

• Including over $200 billion in “emergency” spending to fund Democrats’ partisan infrastructure programs.