WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, on Monday called on Speaker Pelosi to focus on bringing Americans home safely from Afghanistan rather than advancing a $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill that includes spending for child care, climate change, education, and paid family and medical leave.
“An unknown number of Americans are trapped behind enemy lines in Afghanistan, but Speaker Pelosi is calling us back to Washington to ram through $3.5 trillion more in liberal wish list spending. Meanwhile, Congressional offices, mine included, are acting as de facto State Departments to try and help U.S. citizens and our Afghan partners escape the Taliban. Congress should be focused on getting every American home safely since the Administration is clearly failing,” Hinson said in a released statement.
The $3.5 trillion spending bill that House Democrats wanted to advance after the bipartisan infrastructure bill passed in the U.S. Senate appears to be dead on arrival in the U.S. Senate with U.S. Senators Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., stating they will not support a $3.5 trillion budget bill using the reconciliation process that does not require a sixty vote majority. Senate Democrats need both of their votes to have a majority.
U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who supported the infrastructure bill opposed the reconciliation spending bill.
“It’s a shame my Democrat colleagues are still intent on following this bipartisan exercise with a partisan multi-trillion dollar reckless tax and spending spree, which I will oppose,” he said after his vote in favor of the infrastructure bill.
