Message from Rick Scott

I wanted to make sure you saw the latest proposal I have unveiled as part of my Make Washington Work Plan. As part of my plan, I will push to require Congress to pass each of its 12 spending bills separately, rather than wrapping all its work for the year into one massive omnibus bill.

When Congress fails to pass its spending bills separately, they often get jammed into one giant catch-all bill, called an omnibus bill. Allowing legislators to vote on this type of bill makes it easier for members to add in pet projects and pork-barrel spending. They can vote to authorize the necessary expenditures (like funding our military and first responders), while ALSO voting for the bridges to nowhere at the same time.

Congress has failed to pass appropriations bills on time for twenty-two years, leading to more omnibus bills and more wasteful spending. Bill Nelson has voted in favor of the last 13 omnibus bills, including this year’s spending bill, which spanned more than 2,200 pages and increased federal spending by hundreds of billions of dollars. The text of this bill was also not released until shortly before Congress voted in favor of its passage, leaving no time for a transparent review process.

Politicians in Washington already do not give themselves enough time to get things done, and as a result, they frequently rush to complete their most basic legislative work – which is just one reason why separate projects totaling trillions of dollars are often crammed into huge, catch-all pieces of legislation. Even more frustrating is that Washington politicians seem to rarely put forth the time or effort required to read these massive bills, so they don’t know what taxpayer dollars are being spent on before voting for it.

As a result, Congress gets away with passing unnecessary and costly measures that put more of the burden on hardworking taxpayers across the country. These are deceptive practices that have no place in government. Taxpayers deserve transparency and accountability when it comes to spending their hard-earned dollars. Eliminating the concept of omnibus bills is an essential step to putting our nation on the path to responsible spending, and I look forward to fighting for this in the U.S. Senate.

Congress is spending YOUR money, and the use of omnibus bills allow them to pay it with little to no notice to the public. This is a practice that needs to end.

Thank you for your support,

Rick Scott.