U.S. Senator Katie Britt Releases Statement on Supplemental Spending Bill

WASHINGTON, D.C., February 13, 2024 – United States Senator Katie Britt (R-Ala.) today released a statement regarding the supplemental spending bill that was passed early Tuesday morning by the U.S. Senate.

Senator Britt’s statement follows:

I said it last week, and I’ll say it again. As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, I was proud to see all 12 Fiscal Year 2024 appropriations bills publicly marked up and advanced by the end of July. Under the leadership of Senators Murray and Collins, this was a significant step forward towards restoring regular order and reinstituting responsibility, transparency, and accountability to the federal spending process. However, that was over half a year ago. During these past 201 days, not a single one of those appropriations bills has been enacted, despite the fact that FY24 began 135 days ago.

Put this delay in another perspective—the President’s budget request for FY25 was statutorily due last week, yet zero FY24 appropriations bills have been signed into law. Despite how monumentally behind schedule Congress is, Senator Schumer has not allowed an FY24 appropriations bill to come to the floor in 104 days. Yet, this morning, we voted on a supplemental spending bill.

Considering a supplemental funding bill at this juncture is nonsensical, because there is no base funding – FY24 appropriations are still up in the air. Simply put, how can we supplement something that hasn’t occurred yet? It’s completely backwards. Senator Schumer is trying to ice a cake that hasn’t been baked.

The federal spending process is badly broken, and the result is a runaway national debt of more than $34.2 trillion that is being dumped onto the backs of our children and our children’s children. It’s past time to restore regular order to the appropriations process – that’s how we’re going to get control of wasteful spending and preserve opportunity for generations to come.

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