Tag Archive for: omnibus bill

Federal Court Rules Major Biden Spending Bill Was Passed Unconstitutionally

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that a $1.7 trillion spending bill was unconstitutionally passed in December 2022 due to the lack of a quorum, blocking enforcement of a law about pregnant women in the workplace.

United States District Judge James Wesley Hendrix of the Northern District of Texas said that the House of Representatives improperly passed the spending package because a quorum of members was not physically present. The then-Democrat-controlled body allowed proxy voting for the measure, which 215 Democrats and nine Republicans supported.

“Although the Court finds that the passage of the Consolidated Appropriations Act violated the Constitution, Texas does not seek an injunction of—and the Court does not enjoin—the entire Act,” Hendrix wrote in the 120-page opinion. “Rather, the Court enjoins only the application of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act against Texas. The relief granted here is limited to abating the injury that Texas has proven will occur.”

“Based on the Quorum Clause’s text, original public meaning, and historical practice, the Court concludes that the Quorum Clause bars the creation of a quorum by including non-present members participating by proxy,” Hendrix added. “Supreme Court precedent has long held that the Quorum Clause requires presence, and the Clause’s text distinguishes those absent members from the quorum and provides a mechanism for obtaining a physical quorum by compelling absent members to attend. This power to compel attendance makes little sense divorced from physical presence.”

Paxton sued President Joe Biden in February 2023 for signing the measure, arguing in court documents that congressional power to force absent members to attend “would make little sense if the Constitution did not require physical attendance.”

“Congress acted egregiously by passing the largest spending bill in U.S. history with fewer than half the members of the House bothering to do their jobs, show up, and vote in person,” Paxton said in a Tuesday afternoon release. “Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi abused proxy voting under the pretext of COVID-19 to pass this law, then Biden signed it, knowing they violated the Constitution. This was a stunning violation of the rule of law. I am relieved the Court upheld the Constitution.”

The Supreme Court ruled against Republican efforts to challenge the proxy voting rule put in place during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic in January 2022.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

AUTHOR

HAROLD HUTCHISON

Reporter.

RELATED ARTICLE: DCNF Reporter Details Dem Rep.’s Proxy Voting-Enabled High Life

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

‘F*cking Insanity’: Massive Congressional Spending Bill Says Border Patrol Can’t Spend Funds On Border Security

The massive congressional spending bill released Tuesday would bar Customs and Border Protection (CBP) funding from going toward border security as the agency sees record numbers of illegal immigrants.

The bill states that the $1,563,143,000 in funds allocated to CBP for “Operations and Support” can’t be used “to acquire, maintain, or extend border security technology and capabilities, except for technology and capabilities to improve Border Patrol processing.” The bill was introduced in the Senate Tuesday and needs to be passed in order to avert a government shutdown.

Former CBP Acting Commissioner Mark Morgan called the funding restriction “fucking insanity,” in a statement to the DCNF.

“They finally put down in black and white what we’ve been saying for two years- they don’t care about securing our borders or stopping their deadly open border policies. Just throwing money at the crisis to get better and more effective at processing and releasing illegal aliens,” Morgan said.

The lack of funding for border security comes as illegal immigration, drug seizures and encounters of individuals on the terror watchlist are surging at the southern border.

CBP officers encountered a record of more than 2.3 million migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal year 2022. During that time, CBP also caught a record of 98 individuals on the terror watchlist and seized more than 14,000 pounds of illicit fentanyl.

Federal border authorities have also encountered a surge in illegal immigrants of “special interest,” who come from countries of particular national security concern and “possibly have a nexus to terrorism.”

“At this point, they might as well change the name of U.S. Customs and Border Protection to U.S. Customs and Border Processing. Seriously, all the Biden administration wants CBP to do is process migrants or watch them come across with a drone or camera,” Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) Head of Government Relations and Communications RJ Hauman told the DCNF. “Every border security funding stream in a spending bill needs firm conditions to use the money properly, rather than enabling a system that functions as a lawless, greased up turnstile into the United States.”

CBP didn’t respond to a request for comment.

AUTHOR

JENNIE TAER

Investigative reporter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved. All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.