WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), a Senate Budget Committee member, issued the following statement after voting against the 2021 Budget Resolution, which the Senate passed tonight:

“Instead of working together on a proposal as we did each time before, Democrats are trying to rush a nearly-$2 trillion partisan stimulus package through Congress before all of the money from previous COVID-19 relief bills has even been spent. As they advance their extreme agenda, Republicans offered a series of amendments to hold them accountable, help the American people, and ensure taxpayer dollars are being spent wisely. I do not support the budget resolution passed tonight, and I urge my Democratic colleagues and the Biden Administration to change course and work with us to craft a bipartisan, targeted relief package which will deliver relief to those who actually need it.”

To Senator Cramer’s point regarding unused funds, a significant amount of the money appropriated through the five COVID-19 relief packages passed in 2020 has not yet been spent or even obligated. As of late January, this includes: 

  • $14 billion remains unobligated for COVID-19 testing remains unspent,
  • $64 billion of the 68 billion for K-12 schools remains unspent,
  • $5 billion of the $8.75 billion for vaccine distribution remains undistributed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),
  • $10 billion of the $13.5 billion for the Child Care and Development Block Grant program remains unspent, and
  • $4.3 billion of the $4.7 billion for mental health and behavioral health programs remains unobligated.

Based on numbers available from late January, billions in funding even from the most recent relief package passed in December remains unobligated, including:

  • All of the $27 billion for the Department of Transportation,
  • $24.5 billion of the $26 billion for agriculture and nutrition,
  • $211 billion of the $284 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program, and
  • $11 billion of the $19.6 billion for the Veterans’ Affairs Department.

Tonight’s vote on the resolution is the first step for the budget process known as reconciliation, which only requires a simple majority for passage, allowing Democrats to advance this legislation without any support from Republicans. This would be in stark contrast with the five previous COVID-19 relief packages, which were all bipartisan and received over 60 votes in the Senate, including the largest bill known as the CARES Act, which passed unanimously last March.

When both chambers of Congress pass their budget resolutions, committees will formulate a final bill which Congress will vote on. Senators offered several amendments to tonight’s resolution - which will serve as the vehicle for the final legislation - including Senator Cramer, who led efforts on jobs, energy, health care, national defense, and more. Learn more here.

Senator Cramer voted tonight for several pieces of legislation to keep Democrats’ partisan spending package in check, including amendments to:

  • Ensure illegal immigrants and high-income Americans do not receive stimulus checks,
  • Support schools which lose funding because of the Biden Administration’s federal moratorium on oil and natural gas leasing on public lands,
  • Prevent tax increases on small businesses during a national pandemic,
  • Protect religious freedom,
  • Preserve the Navigable Waters Protection Rule which replaced the Obama-era Waters of the United States (WOTUS) Rule,
  • Back funding for Police Officers,
  • Keep the number of Supreme Court Justices at nine,
  • Prohibit schools from receiving COVID-19 relief funds if they do not reopen for in-person learning after their teachers are vaccinated,
  • Oppose minimum wage hikes during a global pandemic,
  • Prohibit a federal carbon tax,
  • Fund border security and ensure enforcement of all immigration laws,
  • Stop the Biden Administration from using the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ban fracking,
  • Hold governors like New York’s Andrew Cuomo accountable for failing to offer accurate reporting on the deaths of nursing home residents and staff during COVID-19
  •  Oppose policies which will increase our reliance on energy or critical mineral imports from foreign countries who have worse environmental or labor standards than the United States,
  •  Create bipartisan congressional committees to improve solvency of federal trust funds,
  • Keep the U.S. Embassy in Israel stationed in Jerusalem, and
  • Uphold contracts awarded for construction of physical barriers along the nation’s border.

Senator Cramer also voted for bills he previously helped introduce which were offered as amendments, such as: