Reporter to Chuck Schumer: How is rushing through a 4,100-page bill a 'functional process'?
A reporter asks Chuck Schumer if he can defend the end-of-year spending bill as a 'functional process.'
Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C., highlighted a "sinister" feature in the omnibus bill released on Tuesday that allocates funds for "reproductive health" in areas where "population growth threatens biodiversity."
The massive $1.7 trillion bill was released earlier that day with the expectations that Congress shall vote on it Wednesday. Several Republican figures, including Bishop, criticized the 4,200-page bill as more wasteful spending from the federal government – the national debt recently surpassed $31 trillion – and passed without any clear knowledge of what’s in the text.
Bishop documented many of the examples from his Twitter account, including over half a billion dollars into "reproductive health" in places that could threaten endangered species.
"On a more sinister note, here's at least $575 million for ‘family planning’ in areas where population growth ‘threatens biodiversity.’ Malthusianism is a disturbing, anti-human ideology that should have ZERO place in any federal program," Bishop tweeted.
Rep. Dan Bishop speaks at a House Committee on Homeland Security hearing on Capitol Hill, July 22, 2020. (Andrew Harnik/Pool via Reuters)
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Several Twitter users attacked this idea of not only promoting abortions but appearing to support reducing population growth.
"Spending taxpayer money to save nature by aborting babies. Nightmarish," Daily Caller news editor Grayson Quay tweeted.
"There's a chilling anti-human synergy between the Left's pet projects, from throttling energy production and raising the cost of living to outright killing people in the womb. It's all about making fewer, less vibrant, and wholly dependant people. It's truly evil," Minnesota House Representative-elect Walter Hudson wrote.
"Further proof leftists believe humans are nothing more than a virus on the earth," Breitbart News reporter Hannah Bleau exclaimed.
$575 million will be allocated in the spending bill to "reproductive health." (iStock)
"This is profoundly disturbing. Kudos to whoever found it," Heritage Foundation analyst David Ditch tweeted.
"This is incredibly messed up. Sure, let's protect endangered species--but let's not do so at the expense of peoples' lives," The Daily Signal editor-in-chief Katrina Trinko commented.
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Bishop also highlighted several other measures in the bill, including the naming of a building after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, $524.4 million for a DEI and "structural racism" National Institute of Health subdivision and the explicit prohibition of funds going to the Customs and Border Patrol "to acquire, maintain or extend border security technology and capabilities."
Congressional leaders released a $1.7 trillion bipartisan spending bill on Tuesday. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was himself questioned on the bill by CNN's Manu Raju on the lack of time Congress members have to read the bill before voting on it.
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"The bill has been carefully worked on by the Appropriations Committee for a very, very long time," Schumer said. "Most of the provisions were well known weeks and weeks and weeks in advance, and getting this bill done for the American people, which really matters, is the most important thing."