WASHINGTON – On Thursday, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) secured a full vote of the United States Senate on his amendments to the $1.7 trillion, 4,000+ page omnibus spending bill. Sen. Johnson offered amendments to eliminate $9.8 billion in earmarks from the bill and to restrict federally funded transportation of illegal migrants. Unfortunately, the Senate voted in favor of keeping the nearly $10 billion of earmarks that will go to states that are sitting on almost $400 billion in surpluses.

In a press conference on Tuesday, Sen. Johnson argued that earmarks are “the gateway drug to the massive deficit spending, to the mortgaging of our children's futures. It has to stop.” On the Senate floor today, the senator explained how the earmarks will go to states that are already “sitting on close to $400 billion of surpluses.” In response to the growing crisis on our southern border, Sen. Johnson explained that his amendment “takes whatever funds are appropriated for transporting illegal immigrants – it only allows those funds to be used to send them home or to a safe third country or to Mexico or to a detention facility here in America.”

The full text of the amendments can be found here and here.

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