Blum: Bad outweighs good in spending bill

WATERLOO - For U.S. 1st District Rep. Rod Blum, there weren't enough reasons to support the year-end, $1.15 trillion omnibus spending bill that Congress passed and the president signed Friday.

Blum was among 113 members of Congress - 95 Republicans and 18 Democrats - who opposed the legislation in the U.S. House, where it passed with 316 lawmakers supporting it.

Iowa's Republican U.S. Sens. Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley opposed the bill.

Blum, a member of the House Budget Committee, called the spending bill that funds government for the next year a 'typical Washington, D.C., backroom deal,” adding that 'Washington special interests are thrilled” by the spending legislation.

'Negotiated behind closed doors by congressional leadership without participation from rank-and-file members, the bill is over 2,000 pages long and was introduced at 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday, giving members of Congress less than 60 hours to analyze it and make a ‘take it or leave it' judgment call while under tremendous pressure to pass the bill before the holidays,” Blum said in a statement after the House passed the bill.

Democratic U.S. 2nd District Rep. Dave Loebsack was the only member of Iowa's delegation who supported the bill.

Blum acknowledged some good provisions in the bill, such as the repeal of country-of-origin labeling of meat products and extending several renewable energy tax credits. But, he concluded, 'these were not nearly enough to outweigh the negatives.”

Those negatives, he said, included funding to bring 10,000 Syrian refugees into the country, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Waters of the United States regulation and quadrupling certain visas for foreign workers.

He also noted it doesn't include bipartisan legislation he helped introduce that would have eliminated some congressional perks.