NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The U.S. House of Representatives passed the sixth short-term continuing resolution on the national budget this week, but Tracey Mann voted against it, to make a point.
"The government funding expires here today," Mann said. "On Wednesday night, there was legislation that would just kick the can down the field for a week. I voted against it out of principle. It's way past time for Congress to do its job, formalize a budget, do appropriations through regular order. That's why I opposed this week long Continuing Resolution. It's just no way to run the government."
The power of the purse is an important check on the federal bureaucracy.
"It's a key function of the legislative branch in our Constitution," Mann said. "What's going to happen is, with them extending government funding by a week. Now it expires Dec. 23, right before Christmas, which means next week, we'll fly back to D.C. and they will try to ram through a big multi-trillion dollar spending package. They have these deadlines and then they force pressure. Right now, Democrats in the House are working with Democrats in the Senate and the Biden Administration to try to jam something through. It's just going to cause more debt."
The one-week process doesn't allow for any of that oversight function to actually happen. Mann said not all CRs are created equal.
"If the process is underway and if it just isn't done yet, or if the spending levels are an appropriate amount to just extending, that's one thing. I'm not going to say that I'll never vote for a Continuing Resolution, but in this instance, to just extend by a week only to provide more pressure as we come into the holidays to jam through a larger spending package, is just not something that I could support."
Mann has voted against all six short-term budget resolutions brought to the House Floor in the 117th Congress.