Rep. Davis Votes Against Omnibus Appropriations Bill

The funding bill before us contains provisions that would cause tremendous harm to millions of Americans. I understand that there are positive elements to this bill, but the damage caused by the bill dramatically overshadows the positives.

I cannot understand how Congress could advance a fundamental change to pension law that threatens the well-being of millions of retirees without public consideration. For four decades – since its inception – pension law has explicitly prohibited cuts to the earned pension benefits of workers who have already retired. Yet the bill before us changes this law establishing a dangerous precedent without any public consideration. This provision is so last minute that I cannot even get answers about how it will affect my home state of Illinois. There are approximately 410,000 people in the Central States multiemployer pension plan that covers workers in Illinois. Yet, no one can tell me how many workers would be affected, how many retirees benefits would be cut, and by how much. This harmful provision is shocking and alarming, and I cannot support it.

The bill also threatens public safety by repealing limits on the number of hours truck drivers drive without sleep, allowing harmful levels of lead bullets and fishing tackle to enter our environment, and removing protections against agricultural pollution. The bill undermines public health by rolling back healthy food requirements for school lunches and for the Women, Infants and Children’s nutrition program.

In addition to severe pension cuts and serious threats to public health, the provisions allowing taxpayers to fund potentially toxic speculation is deployable. The taxpayer should not fund the reckless speculation of the financial industry that puts our nation’s economy at risk. I abjectly oppose putting our government, economy, and citizens at risk.

Further, the bill would allow private dollars to once again corrupt our political process by removing limitations on campaign finance laws and by prohibiting the IRS from stopping political groups from pretending to be non-profit organizations.

While the gap between the haves and have-nots are at historical highs, the Republican Leadership charges forward to help the wealthiest few flourish while the rest of its citizens struggle. These are not American values. There are no provisions to help families by raising the minimum wage, to ensure workers are treated fairly, to make companies provide equal pay to women for equal work, or to reward American businesses that manufacture goods hear rather than moving their dollars and business overseas. There are positive things within this bill; however the mean-spirited, harmful provisions poison this bill.