House Passes The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman John Rutherford (FL-05) released the following statement regarding House passage of The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024:

"Today, the House passed the first package of six FY 2024 appropriations bills which cuts spending, protects conservative priorities, and fully funds our national security needs and the promises made to our veterans. Thanks to the leadership of Speaker Johnson, nearly two thirds of House Republicans passed this bill that makes the first topline cuts to non-defense, non-veteran spending in almost a decade, cutting $9 billion from FY 2023 levels. Without the bill before us today, Americans faced an expensive and irresponsible government shutdown or a Continuing Resolution that continued Nancy Pelosi’s FY 2023 spending levels that are $24 billion, or 5%, above the funding in this bill today.

"Democrats tried to grow the size and scope of the federal government though this package but failed. This bill comes in over $100 billion under President Biden’s FY2024 Budget Request and successfully blocks attempts by Democrats to:

• Expand electric vehicles at federal agencies, to the tune of $54 million.
• Hire 4,700 new DC bureaucrats at USDA.
• Halt reimbursements to law enforcement for the cost of incarcerating unauthorized criminal aliens.

"This isn’t the bill I would have written, but it shows what can be done when we work through regular order to further the conservative policies and spending cuts that American voters sent us to Washington to achieve, including:

• Fully funding veteran health care, VA toxic exposure programs, and military infrastructure at home and abroad.
• Protecting veterans’ Second Amendment rights.
• Reporting and tracking purchases of U.S. farmland by China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran.
• Cutting nearly a billion dollars from the DOJ and prohibiting the DOJ from investigating parents who exercise their free speech at school board meetings or churches based on their religious beliefs.
• Prohibiting the sale of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to China.
• Cutting the EPA by 10% and blocking greenhouse gas permitting and reporting requirements for our farmers and livestock producers.
• Banning COVID-19 mask mandates on public transportation.
• Prohibiting the FDA from conducting research on human embryos."

To see a complete list of Republican wins and more details about the bill passed today, please click here.