Jon Kyl, December 24, 2007

The Senate’s last day of session this year was a lesson in American politics.

Because Congress waited until the very end of the year to address one of its very basic functions -- to pass annual government funding bills -- the Democratic majority bundled 11 of the 12 appropriations bills into a massive, $933 billion spending bill known as an "omnibus bill."

Legislating with an omnibus bill corrupts the regular appropriations process, which was designed to ensure that individual spending bills could be carefully scrutinized and amended. In an omnibus package, good provisions are coupled with bad ones, and legislators and the president are presented with a "take it or leave it" situation. Unfortunately, in this case, if you "leave it," the government shuts down and nothing gets accomplished.

The Democratic majority had hoped to use the omnibus bill to direct billions of dollars in unnecessary spending to their preferred programs. The initially proposed omnibus bill sought $23 billion in spending above the president’s budget, which would have led to $313 billion in unnecessary spending over 10 years and cost each American household $2,769.

In response, congressional Republicans and the president united to fight wasteful spending and oppose this abuse of taxpayer dollars. And in the end, while there was a good bit of budget gimmickry associated with the bill (for instance, Democrats deemed some regularly scheduled, annual spending in the bill as "emergencies"), the bill was very close to the president’s total budget request for 2008.

The original bill also did not include emergency troop funding. But thankfully, an amendment authored by Senator Mitch McConnell was adopted to provide needed resources to our troops. The House of Representatives followed suit and the final bill will fund our troops at least through March.

The bill also provides $2.6 billion in resources to secure the border, including $1.225 billion for fencing, infrastructure and technology. Although it was my clear preference to keep the existing mandates of the Secure Fence Act, the omnibus bill does not change the requirement that 700 miles of fencing be constructed. In fact, section 546 of the bill mandates that no fewer than 700 miles of total fencing be built, with the first 370 miles of fencing completed by the end of 2008. Also, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has repeatedly affirmed his commitment to construct mostly double-layer fencing, and the first 160 miles is already complete.

There is much in the omnibus bill to be criticized. The budget gimmickry is disappointing and the number of earmarks included (only 20 percent fewer than in 2005, when earmarks reached a historic high) is fiscally irresponsible (and is something I will continue to work to reduce in next year’s budget). Nevertheless, the total funding stayed within the budget and most of the bad policy was removed.

There is a better way to legislate and I’m hopeful that next year Congress will get its work done on time and not force another "take it or leave it" choice. I guess you have to be an optimist in this business!

Senator Jon Kyl, a Republican, represents Arizona in the U.S. Senate. He serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Finance Committee, and the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.