SENATE PASSES OMNIBUS SPENDING BILL - Funds Syrian Refugees, Planned Parenthood, Executive Amnesty:
By The Right Scoop
(SEE ALL UPDATES BELOW)
The Senate just passed the Omnibus spending bill that the House passed a few minutes ago:
NBC reporter corrects Reuters:
Here’s a photo of the House bill being rushed to the Senate:
I’ll update with more when I have the vote counts and the roll calls…
UPDATE: Guess who missed such an important vote?
THE HILL – Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) missed Friday’s Senate vote approving a massive $1.8 trillion end-of-the-year spending bill and tax package — a day after he suggested that he would try to slow the legislation down.
The Florida Republican, who is running for president, was the only 2016 contender to miss the vote, which is the Senate’s final vote of the year.
Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), three other presidential candidates, all voted against the the legislation.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a fourth GOP presidential candidate from the Senate, backed the bill.
UPDATE: Here’s the vote count. All they needed was a simple majority to pass it. They clearly got much more than that:
UPDATE: A strong statement from Sen. Cruz who voted against the bill:
What we’ve seen in Congress today is profoundly disappointing. This spending bill does not honor the promises we made to the men and women who elected us. It funds Obamacare. It funds Planned Parenthood. It funds executive amnesty. It fails to protect our national security and stop Syrian refugees from coming to this country. It fails to do anything to stop the Iranian Nuclear Deal. And what does it do? It jacks up yet more low-skilled immigration, which will only drag down wages, kill American jobs, and hurt working men and women.
This bill is the big-government agenda of Democrats that effectively forfeits our massive Republican victories of 2014 and cements Obama’s priorities for nearly the full remainder of his term. This is the Washington Cartel in action, and it’s precisely why the American people from coast-to-coast are so volcanically frustrated.
UPDATE: Here’s the full roll call vote:
YEAs —65
Alexander (R-TN) Ayotte (R-NH) Baldwin (D-WI) Barrasso (R-WY) Bennet (D-CO) Blumenthal (D-CT) Blunt (R-MO) Booker (D-NJ) Brown (D-OH) Cantwell (D-WA) Capito (R-WV) Cardin (D-MD) Carper (D-DE) Casey (D-PA) Coats (R-IN) Cochran (R-MS) Collins (R-ME) Coons (D-DE) Corker (R-TN) Cornyn (R-TX) Donnelly (D-IN) Durbin (D-IL)Feinstein (D-CA) Franken (D-MN) Gardner (R-CO) Gillibrand (D-NY) Graham (R-SC) Hatch (R-UT) Heinrich (D-NM) Heitkamp (D-ND) Heller (R-NV) Hirono (D-HI) Hoeven (R-ND) Inhofe (R-OK) Isakson (R-GA) Johnson (R-WI) Kaine (D-VA) King (I-ME) Kirk (R-IL) Klobuchar (D-MN) Lankford (R-OK) Leahy (D-VT) McConnell (R-KY) Menendez (D-NJ)Mikulski (D-MD) Murkowski (R-AK) Murphy (D-CT) Murray (D-WA) Nelson (D-FL) Perdue (R-GA) Peters (D-MI) Reed (D-RI) Reid (D-NV) Roberts (R-KS) Rounds (R-SD) Schatz (D-HI) Schumer (D-NY) Shaheen (D-NH) Stabenow (D-MI) Tillis (R-NC) Udall (D-NM) Warner (D-VA) Warren (D-MA) Whitehouse (D-RI) Wicker (R-MS)
NAYs —33
Boozman (R-AR) Burr (R-NC) Cassidy (R-LA) Cotton (R-AR) Crapo (R-ID) Cruz (R-TX) Daines (R-MT) Enzi (R-WY) Ernst (R-IA) Fischer (R-NE) Flake (R-AZ)Grassley (R-IA) Lee (R-UT) Manchin (D-WV) Markey (D-MA) McCain (R-AZ) McCaskill (D-MO) Merkley (D-OR) Moran (R-KS) Paul (R-KY) Portman (R-OH) Risch (R-ID)Sanders (I-VT) Sasse (R-NE) Scott (R-SC) Sessions (R-AL) Shelby (R-AL) Sullivan (R-AK) Tester (D-MT) Thune (R-SD) Toomey (R-PA) Vitter (R-LA) Wyden (D-OR)
Not Voting – 2
Boxer (D-CA)Rubio (R-FL)
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