Paul Ryan: ‘I Hate Omnibus Bill’ But I Did It Anyway

AP/J. Scott Applewhite

by MICHELLE FIELDS22 Dec 20153,074

House Speaker Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) told radio host Bill Bennett that he hates Omnibus bills, but he passed a $1 trillion omnibus last week anyway.

“I hate omnibus bills and I don’t like doing these last-second bills,” Ryan said. He added that he blames Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) who filibustered, “all but one appropriations bill” and also his caucus who, “seized up in the middle of the summer, unable to pass any appropriations bills because of some poison pill amendments.”

Ryan was asked why $1.6 billion was allocated to the refugee program, especially considering there was support from dozens of Republican members of Congress for a proposal introduced by Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX) that would temporarily halt the refugee program. Despite the broad support, Ryan decided to fund President Obama’s refugee program, which includes Syrian refugees. He argued that:

$1.6 billion is not simply for Syrian refugees. It’s for the entire refugee program. You remember the unaccompanied children that got dumped onto the border from Honduras and El Salvador? We had to go do emergency legislation…and put new resources on the border in anticipation of that. Well, there’s a fear that could happen again, so that’s what this money is for, to prevent and prepare for any chance that we might have a whole new raft of unaccompanied children getting put on the border.

Ryan also discussed what he hopes to accomplish in 2016, saying that Americans are, ” going to see us put a bill on the president’s desk going after ObamaCare and Planned Parenthood.”

He added that Americans will “see a return to regular order, where men and women in Congress can bring their bills to the floor, make their amendments in order, and we will run Congress the way the Founders intended it to be run.”

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Big Government, Immigration, Paul Ryan,Economics, omnibus, Bill Bennett