releases: https://web.archive.org/web/20150103055424/http://chaffetz.house.gov/press-release/myths-vs-facts-cromnibus-edition
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| https://web.archive.org/web/20150103055424/http://chaffetz.house.gov/press-release/myths-vs-facts-cromnibus-edition | Myths vs. Facts: CRomnibus Legislation | 2014-12-17 | 2014 | 2014-12 | Republican | House | UT | Jason Chaffetz | C001076 | web.archive.org | legacy | Many of you continue to have concerns about the omnibus bill passed last week. I understand your concerns. The bill is an imperfect compromise with the problems and budget gimmicks typical of all appropriations bills. However, I believe passing this bill was important to Utah and represents our best strategy for fighting the President’s agenda. There is a reason the likes of Nancy Pelosi and Elizabeth Warren voted against this bill. There is a lot of misinformation circulating about this bill. Let’s talk about some of those myths. MYTH: Voting against the CRomnibus would put an end to executive amnesty. FACT: False. If the CRomnibus had been defeated, the President’s executive orders would still be carried out. During the last shutdown, just 15% of DHS employees were furloughed. The rest - 85% - were deemed “essential” and continued to work through the shutdown. A shutdown would not stop executive amnesty. Furthermore, the agency carrying out the President’s orders is primarily funded by user fees. In a government shutdown, those fees are still collected. I believe we must change the equation. Can that be done with a Harry Reid-led Senate? Unfortunately, no. With a new Senate, I hope and expect we can and will. Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), Chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, explains, “The CRomnibus actually presents the best possible chance of stopping executive amnesty, as not even a government shutdown will stop the President’s executive actions. The CRomnibus provided just two months of funding for the Department of Homeland Security so that our border patrol can keep the border secure through the end of February. One of the first things that House and Senate Republicans will tackle - TOGETHER - is to create a budget for DHS that includes our tough House border security bill and specific language to stop the use of any funds, appropriated or gathered via fees, to implement the President's executive amnesty plan. While the President and Democrats were hoping to force a government shutdown debate early next year to detract the public's attention from his unlawful immigration executive order and discredit the new Republican Senate, thanks to the CRomnibus we sidestepped their trap and strengthened the new Republican Senate's ability to put a bill on the President's desk forcing him to choose between protecting our border or protecting illegal immigrants.” MYTH: A vote for the CRomnibus was a betrayal of Utah voters. FACT: A vote against the bill would have been the real betrayal. Failure to pass this budget would have cost rural Utah counties a substantial portion of the funds upon which they rely to provide public safety, infrastructure and other critical services. A vote that could financially devastate the counties I represent would have been a true betrayal. Because the federal government pays no property taxes on the millions of acres it controls in our rural counties, those counties are forced to rely on PILT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) to run local government. The omnibus, along with the National Defense Authorization Act, fully funds PILT at $442 million. This funding will provide certainty and badly needed stability for rural counties in Utah and across the West. There is no funding vehicle for PILT payments – the only way Utah ever gets this money is if the bill is attached to an appropriations bill. The Utah delegation worked hard for our constituents to get PILT payments into the omnibus bill. FACT: Voting against the sage grouse provision would have been a further betrayal of Utah voters. Because the CRomnibus prohibits the US Fish and Wildlife Service from issuing rules to place the Western and Gunnison Sage Grouse on the Endangered Species List for a year, Western states gained a huge concession. We can now demonstrate once again that states can manage endangered species without the one-size-fits-all policies of federal agencies that hurt our local economies and have a low rate of success. Utah's state plan has been successful and proves that habitat protection can co-exist with grazing, mining, drilling and other land uses. The CRomnibus contains numerous other provisions important to Western states. The Western Caucus has provided an excellent summary of those provisions here. MYTH: The CRomnibus empowers environmentalists and the EPA. FACT: The CRomnibus cut EPA funding by $60 million. The Western Caucus reports, “Overall, EPA funding has been reduced by $2.2 billion – or 21% since Republicans gained control of the House in 2010. The agreement rejects $66 million requested by the President for EPA regulatory programs and creates exemptions for livestock producers from onerous greenhouse gas regulations.” MYTH: The CRomnibus is full of pork and giveaways. FACT: Budget authority for 2015 is even lower than the budget authority for 2008, despite seven years of inflation, population growth, and GDP growth. This bill dramatically slows the growth in discretionary spending. In actual dollars, total discretionary spending will have decreased for the fifth consecutive year. Total discretionary budget authority, including disaster, emergency, and war spending, will be about $1.1 trillion in fiscal year 2015, which is lower than 2008. This appropriations bill continues the trend of reducing total discretionary spending relative to GDP. Discretionary spending relative to GDP has fallen dramatically since the stimulus was enacted and is now even lower than it was prior to the stimulus. In 2007, total discretionary spending equaled 7.5% of GDP. In 2009, total discretionary spending peaked at 10.4% of GDP. However, in 2015, total discretionary spending will approach 6.1% of GDP. These figures include all discretionary spending such as base, disaster, emergency, and war spending. MYTH: The CRomnibus fully funded ObamaCare through September. FACT: The CRomnibus cut another $10 million from IPAB atop the $52 billion we have cut from Obamacare since 2012. I have voted more than 40 times to repeal Obamacare. Unfortunately, Democrats intentionally designed Obamacare to function independent from Congressional discretionary appropriations specifically to prevent us from cutting the funding. Even the government shutdown did not stop Obamacare because of the way it was funded. We have repeatedly blocked funding for implementation. Rep. Brady (R-TX), who is the most senior Republican on the House Ways & Means Committee, writes, “The CRomnibus blocks the White House from using the Prevention and Public Health Fund as a slush fund for ObamaCare, removed $10 million from the IPAB rationing board and blocked taxpayer funds from being used to bailout insurance companies faltering in the exchanges. To sum up, we did not fund ObamaCare through the Cromnibus. As the author of the ObamaCare chart and leader of the Health subcommittee my goal is to repeal ObamaCare as soon as possible (we'll need a new President) as that's the only way to fully defund it, and replace it with a free-market alternative driven by patients, not Washington. In the meantime, we'll continue to repeal and defund as much of it as we can and now with the Senate working with us, not against us.” MYTH: The CRomnibus shows Republicans aren’t serious about tackling the debt. FACT: This bill only addresses discretionary spending – which is about1/3 of the federal budget and is not the main driver of our debt. Even if you reduced discretionary spending to 0, we would still run massive deficits. Mandatory spending — which is NOT addressed in this or any other appropriations bill — is the primary threat to our nation's economic future. Congress should be focusing more on reforming programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, which are by far the biggest drivers of our debt. Three years ago, I introduced a Social Security reform proposal. You can view this proposal on my website at http://chaffetz.house.gov/issue/social-security MYTH: The Y Mountain bill should never have been part of the CRomnibus. FACT: It wasn’t. I was able to pass it through the House in each of the last two sessions – first in July 2012 and again in June 2013. Senator Hatch carried the bill in the Senate. He wisely attached the legislation to the NDAA and consequently was able to pass it. It is now on its way to the president’s desk for signature. You can read more about what it accomplishes here. ### | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |