SALT LAKE CITY — Utah’s two Republican senators voted opposite each other on two federal spending measures that one described as a “massive, stinking” package.
The $1.4 trillion appropriations plan boosts spending for both the military and domestic programs. It also eliminates key taxes to fund the Affordable Care Act and raises the legal tobacco buying age to 21.
The House passed the spending bills earlier this week and President Donald Trump is expected to sign them Friday.
Sen. Mitt Romney voted for the legislation because it includes provisions to reduce youth vaping, support Hill Air Force Base, repeal Obamacare taxes and protect rural Utah communities.
“While this compromise legislation is far from perfect, it contains legislation I fought for that is important for Utah, our children’s health and our national security,” he said in a statement. “Raising the legal tobacco age to 21 is a key step toward protecting kids from addiction, and an FDA review of vaping cartridges will help ensure vaping devices cannot being adulterated with hazardous substances.”
Meantime, Sen. Mike Lee took to the Senate floor to rail against the measures, calling “Omnibus” the worst Christmas movie on the air every year.
“Critics and fans have loved to hate it for years. As is always the case in these money-grabbing sequels, the actors and the writers and the directors are just mailing it in,” he said.
The “secretive, undemocratic, irresponsive” process that produced the spending agreement is “nothing short of a sham. But then again so is the substance of the bill itself,” Utah’s senior senator said.
Lee said the bill includes some things he supports, including repealing the medical device tax, fixing a provision that would subject churches to more taxes and retirement account reform.
But he said he is forced to vote against the legislation because those things are “lumped into this massive, stinking package” where there’s no option to vote for individual items.
“This is wrong,” Lee said. “The thing about these omnibuses is they put us in a take-it-or-leave-it position.”
Romney said the spending package contains $1.87 billion for at least 98 F-35s, with repairs and maintenance occurring at Hill Air Force Base, and $557 million for modernizing a missile defense system managed at Hill.
It also reauthorizes programs that support law enforcement, county services and schools in Utah’s rural communities, he said.
Those provisions include:
- Full funding for Payment in Lieu of Taxes on federal lands and Secure Rural Schools, which supports rural communities and school districts surrounded by federal lands.
- $175 million for watershed and flood prevention as part of wildfire management.
- $20 million for the Central Utah Project.
- $101.5 million for the wild horse and burro program.