A.G. Gancarski
The Omnibus Appropriations bill passed handily on Friday, and Rep. Corrine Brown explained her “yes” vote in a statement loaded with partisan language.
“Today I voted to avert a disastrous Republican government shutdown and to make vital investments in the future of America’s working families,” Brown said. “The bill implements the Bipartisan Budget Agreement that was adopted by Congress in October. The bill is not perfect; it is a bipartisan compromise.”
“In this Omnibus package, Democrats won enormous improvements over the destructive FY 2016 appropriations bills Republicans wrote earlier this year,” she added. “For most of this year, Republicans have been trying to make devastating cuts to our investments in the future of our hard-working American families – cuts that would kill jobs and weaken our economic growth. For example, the House GOP bill would have slashed education initiatives by $2.5 billion below 2015 and also cut HHS funding below the 2015 level. In stark contrast, this final bill makes strong investments in areas that will create jobs and grow the economy, such as renewable energy, education, research, and infrastructure.”
One notable defeat was reported by the Jacksonville Business Journal in October: Jacksonville Transportation Authority not getting its TIGER Grant money for mobility corridors, a project the Lenny Curry administration lobbied for.
In that sense, JTA is not alone.
“I was also disappointed that the state of Florida ranked last in the nation in Transportation TIGER grant money (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grants), and attempted to include language in the omnibus to encourage DOT to distribute those funds on a more equitable basis,” Brown noted.
