Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) was the one Home Democrat to vote in opposition to a $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bundle on Friday, voting “no” on the measure due to elevated funding for protection and federal businesses that oversee immigration.
The Home handed the sprawling measure in a 225-201-1 vote, sending the invoice to President Biden’s desk. The Senate handed the invoice in a bipartisan 68-29 vote on Thursday.
In a press release Friday afternoon, Ocasio-Cortez stated she was involved about funding within the invoice for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Division of Homeland Safety (DHS), along with the $858 billion in protection spending.
“I campaigned on a promise to my constituents: to oppose further enlargement and funding for ICE and DHS — significantly within the absence of long-overdue immigration reform. For that motive, in addition to the dramatic improve in protection spending which exceeds even President Biden’s request, I voted no on at this time’s omnibus invoice,” Ocasio-Cortez stated.
The appropriations invoice handed by Congress contains $8.42 billion for ICE, which is $161.1 million greater than what was enacted in 2022 and $319.4 million greater than what the president requested.
DHS obtained $86.5 billion in discretionary sources.
Ocasio-Cortez stated the “dramatic improve” in spending for these two businesses “reduce[s] in opposition to the guarantees our get together has made to immigrant communities throughout the nation,” including that it’s the case “particularly in gentle of the dearth of progress on DACA [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals], TPS [Temporary Protected Status], and increasing paths to citizenship.”
The New York Democrat was not the one member of the caucus to not vote for the omnibus bundle: Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) voted current. The Hill reached out to the congresswoman for touch upon her vote.
Ocasio-Cortez additionally took concern with the method by which Congress funded the federal government for the remainder of the fiscal 12 months. Sometimes, the chambers will vote on appropriations payments for every company. This 12 months, nonetheless, appropriators opted for a single omnibus bundle to fund all corners of the federal government.
“From the start of this negotiation, we made clear to Democratic management that we should hold the follow of voting on funding payments by company — significantly controversial businesses like DHS — in order that Members wouldn’t be pressured to betray one a part of their district in service of expediency,” Ocasio-Cortez stated. “We had been profitable on this strategy final 12 months, and regarded ahead to supporting such a bundle this 12 months.”
The congresswoman touted provisions included within the omnibus that she helped craft — together with a rise within the Nationwide Labor Relations Board and funding for neighborhood initiatives in her district — however stated she couldn’t vote for them due to her overarching considerations with the invoice.
“These victories and lots of extra – such because the inclusion of PUMP [Providing Urgent Maternal Protections] and PWFA [Pregnant Workers Fairness] Acts – are hard-fought wins that we proudly help and would proudly vote for. However tying these provisions to dramatic will increase in surveillance, border patrol forces, and militarized spending after years of deeply disturbing misconduct and lack of any significant accountability is choice we discover deeply objectionable,” she stated.
“Our constituents have made clear that they want to see objections to those measures represented in Congress, and that’s what I’ll do,” she added.
