WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), a Senate Budget Committee member, issued the following statement on Senate Democrats passing their $4.2 trillion Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22) Budget Resolution today:
“Hours after a strong bipartisan vote to revitalize America’s infrastructure, Senate Democrats did an about-face and passed a purely partisan budget resolution aimed at growing federal government spending by over $4 trillion. Their reckless tax-and-spend agenda is a threat to the American people and their way of life. It would dramatically expand the federal bureaucracy, raise the cost of living, and lower the value of Americans’ hard-earned income. As this budget process moves forward, I urge my Democratic colleagues to change course and resist the extreme views of their liberal, socialist base.”
The FY22 Budget Resolution lays the parameters for Democrats to craft and pass their official budget once the House of Representatives follows the Senate and passes the resolution. After that, the relevant committees are instructed by the resolution to offer their parts of the budget for Congress to consider by September 15, 2021. The topline for Democrats’ FY22 Budget Resolution includes:
To oppose the measure, Senate Republicans offered a series of amendments to the resolution during what is known as a vote-a-rama, where they forced several votes aimed at either changing or removing negative parts of the resolution, or highlighting the extreme positions held by some or all of the Senate Democratic members. Those votes covered a wide range of issues including life, energy, education, and taxes. Senator Cramer cosponsored several amendments including one proposed by Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) to deploy carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration (CCUS) technologies; and one from Senator John Hoeven (R-ND) promoting increased deployment and use of reliable baseload power resources like coal and nuclear energy. Both passed with bipartisan support. Senator Cramer offered his reaction to these and other votes in real-time on social media. Read his comments here.
Senator Cramer also introduced a number of amendments in the areas of energy, agriculture, health care, and veterans’ affairs. One which received a vote on the Senate floor was his amendment to prohibit the Biden Administration from banning hydraulic fracturing. It passed with bipartisan support despite 42 Democrats voting against it. Before the vote, Senator Cramer delivered remarks on the floor calling for its passage.
“Democrats enacting a ban on fracking would weaken national security, increase global emissions, and take more money out of the pocketbooks of hardworking Americans,” said Senator Cramer. “If they reject our amendment to their reckless tax-and-spend proposal, Senate Democrats would be admitting that imposing their radical agenda on the American people is more important than lowering costs for their constituents, protecting our national security, or even decreasing the world’s carbon footprint.”
