Lawmakers on Capitol Hill touted a $1.7 trillion funding package on Tuesday — with both Democrats and Republicans claiming victories — which is designed to avert a government shutdown when the current funding expires at midnight on Friday.
The text of the legislation is some 4,000 pages long, leaving very little hope for lawmakers — even with the help of aides — to get through the text prior to voting on the massive package.
I wonder how long it would take the clerk to read this… pic.twitter.com/iaphBzTEsS
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 20, 2022
And according to The Heritage Foundation, the omnibus bill they may not have time to read is packed with woke pet projects. Among them are a number of LGBTQ projects — from pride centers to museums — and “anti-racism” initiatives, according to a thread shared on Twitter on Tuesday.
The thread began with a headline in all capital letters: “WOKE PRIORITIES IN THE OMNIBUS.”
“Here are just a few earmarks (a.k.a. your taxpayer dollars set aside for special interests or projects) we found in the 1,455 page spending bill that are funding the left’s extreme agenda using YOUR money,” it read. An addendum to the thread later noted that the number of pages had been a typo and that the actual size of the bill was much larger: “The bill (which was released really early this morning) has a whopping total of 4,155 pages.”
💸 $1.2 million for “LGBTQIA+ Pride Centers”
💸 $1.2 million for "services for DACA recipients” (aka helping illegal aliens with taxpayer funds) at San Diego Community College.
💸 $477k for the Equity Institute in RI to indoctrinate teachers with “antiracism virtual labs.”— Heritage Foundation (@Heritage) December 20, 2022
What followed was a list of the “woke agenda” projects — along with their respective price tags and which areas of the country stood to benefit from omnibus money.
“$1.2 million for ‘LGBTQIA+ Pride Centers’; $1.2 million for ‘services for DACA recipients’ (aka helping illegal aliens with taxpayer funds) at San Diego Community College; $477k for the Equity Institute in RI to indoctrinate teachers with ‘antiracism virtual labs,’” the thread continued.
More projects were listed in the following tweets, including “$1 million for Zora’s House in Ohio, a ‘coworking and community space’ for ‘women and gender-expansive people of color’; $3 million for the American LGBTQ+ Museum in New York City; $3.6 million for a Michelle Obama Trail in Georgia.”
New York’s state capital is set to receive three-quarters of a million dollars for “LGBT and Gender Non-Conforming housing”; Baltimore will rake in a cool $2 million for a wax museum dedicated to African Americans, tentatively named “Great Blacks in Wax”; and New York will get over $800,000 for an “LGBT center.”
An additional $750,000 is earmarked for the “TransLatin@ Coalition” in Los Angeles, which is supposed to create “workforce development programs and supportive services for Transgender and Gender nonconforming and Intersex immigrant women.”
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) ripped into the omnibus during a Tuesday press conference, arguing that leadership should have presented a plan when it was due — on September 30, as it is every year — instead of delaying until the last minute and then trying to rush through a bill that no one would have time to read.
WATCH:
I brought along the 1.7 trillion, 4,000+ page Pelosi-Schumer omnibus spending bill that's being fast-tracked through the Senate. This process stinks. It's an abomination. It's a no good rotten way to run government. We're standing up and saying NO. pic.twitter.com/Wom6xKEeQh
— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) December 20, 2022