Julie Johnson: “the House voted last week on a bill to reopen the government, but tucked away in the fine print of that bill was…”

“the House voted last week on a bill to reopen the government, but tucked away in the fine print of that bill was something very disturbing and troubling: a very brazen payoff of millions of taxpayer dollars that could quietly be transferred to the personal bank accounts of eight Republican Senators. These are Senators who may have had knowledge or even participated in efforts to overturn the 2020 Presidential election. At a time when Americans are struggling to get ahead, Republicans in both the House and the Senate signed off on a deal that lines the pockets of the very people who wrote it. In every corner of my district, families are doing everything they can to make ends meet. They are juggling rising grocery costs, higher rents, and healthcare bills that seem to grow every single month. They expect this Congress to meet the moment with integrity, responsibility, and the basic respect for the people who we serve. What Republicans did was an insult to every hardworking taxpayer who plays by the rules and expects honesty from their government. Republicans could have voted it down. They could have passed an amendment to remove that provision from the bill. Despite being given the opportunity to do so, House Republicans let it pass. Now I am grateful that the House voted just last night to pass a bill to take this away, but there is no guarantee that the Senate will actually do that. The American people deserve better than these corrupt, backroom deals.”