Zinke Votes to Pass Three Government Funding Bills to Avoid Government Shutdown

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) - Today, Western Montana Congressman and member of the House Appropriations Committee Ryan Zinke announced the advancement of three individual spending bills: House AppropriationsDefense (H.R. 4365); Homeland Security (H.R. 4367); and State and Foreign Operations (H.R. 4665); off of the House Floor and to the Senate. The House has now sent four of the 12 individual spending bills Congress is aiming to pass to avoid a lapse in government funding before the fiscal year ending midnight on September 30^th,, however, the Democrat-led Senate has failed to pass a single bill.

These appropriations bills will accompany the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act the House passed in July.

Congressman Zinke Released the following statement on the bills’ passage:

“I came here to do two things, curve the spending and remove the woke. As a member of the Appropriations Committee, my colleagues and I did the hard work for nine months to restore regular order to the way the government is funded. We found waste, fraud and abuse, we cut unnecessary spending to save the taxpayer, looked for strategic investments in things that matter, and we defunded and blocked the worst of the Biden Administration’s policies that are driving up the costs of gas and groceries.

“The spending bills we passed tonight will help us secure the border and stop the invasion of illegal immigrants and deadly drugs into our country,will give our troops a long overdue pay raise and strengthen national security.

“These three bills and the Veterans Affairs funding bill that passed in July fund more than 70% of the federal government are now in the Senate’s court. The Senate still has not passed a single appropriations bill 48-hours before a lapse in funding. I urge Montana’s senators to break the logjam and take them up to avoid at least a partial government shutdown.”

Homeland Security:

• Read the bill text here.
• Funds Border wall. Increases funding by $2.104 billion for construction of physical wall along the southwest border.
• Forces Secretary Mayorkas to adhere to the law and allocate funds to build physical barriers within 120 days.
• Reduces Mayorkas’ salary to $1 due to dereliction of duty.
• Funds an additional 1,795 Border Patrol agents at the Northern and Southern borders. Provides $496 million for 22,000 Border Patrol Agents, the highest level ever funded.
• Blocks funding for the relocation of aliens to Montana and other interior areas.
• Blocks funding for nonprofits to house and care for illegal aliens.
• Bans vaccine mandates for DHS personnel.
• Increases border security technology at $228 million ($26 million above the Administration’s request) including Autonomous Surveillance Towers and Tactical Aerostats which are force multipliers for Border Patrol that the Biden Admin grounded last year.
• Prohibits funding for “gender affirming” care for illegal immigrants in ICE detention.
• Deports dangerous criminals by providing $9.79 billion for ICE, $1.3 billion over FY23 level, $1.4 billion over the Administration’s budget request.

Defense:

• Read the bill text here.

• Increases National Defense funding by 3% to counter the rising threats from China, Iran, and Russia.
• Includes no new funding to Ukraine.
• Counters China by providing over $9 billion for the Pacific Deterrence Initiative, which bolsters U.S. military capabilities in the Indo-Pacific region and doubles funding for International Security Cooperation Programs for Taiwan ($108 million).
• Invests $1.16 billion in counternarcotics, opioids and fentanyl operations to prevent the invasion of the deadly substances.
• Prohibits funding for sex changes, drag queen story hour, and critical race theory.
• Blocks Biden’s executive orders on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), and cuts $114.7 million in DEI funding from Biden’s budget request.
• Redirects $715 million from the Biden climate change plan to actual warfighting activity
• Includes an increase in basic pay for all military personnel (5.2% across the board) and a historic pay increase for junior enlisted servicemembers of an average of 30%.
• Invests in the modernization of the nuclear triad: the B-21 Raider, the Columbia Class Submarine, and Sentinel.
• Enhances oversight of prior funding to Ukraine.

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