Vote Alert: Pass a promise-breaking cromnibus before the election

Under cover of a media firestorm surrounding Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court, Congress sent an $855 billion spending package funding Democrat priorities to President Donald Trump’s desk, where it was signed into law.

This “Cromnibus” bill, so named because it was one part continuing resolution (CR) and one-part omnibus spending bill, gave congressional Republicans their final opportunity before the midterm elections attach conservative policy riders to a must-pass bill to fund the government. Republicans punted on the opportunity. Instead, the House of Representatives combined Department of Defense funding with Labor/Health and Human Services/Education funding, rolling it all together with a continuing resolution to fund the rest of the government.

The HHS-Labor-Education component appropriated $178 billion for fiscal year 2019, $10.7 billion more than President Trump requested in his budget proposal. The bill also contained $286 million for Title X abortion funding, as well as $100 million for the Obama-era “teen pregnancy prevention program.” A bipartisan conservative amendment to protect faith-based adoption agencies from government discrimination, the Conscience Protection Act, was stripped from the bill. Planned Parenthood was also fully funded, again.

With Defense funding attached to these liberal policies, the military was held hostage by congressional leadership to force conservative lawmakers to vote for these progressive policies. Republicans could have used the threat of a government shutdown to corner the Democrats and force them to choose between their progressive ideology and funding the government weeks before an election. Instead, conservatives were the ones who were squeezed. The Cromnibus represented the worst of how the Washington D.C. establishment works to undermine the conservative agenda.

The Senate passed the conference report on the Cromnibus on September 18, 2018, at 12:45 p.m. in a vote of 93 – 7.

The House of Representatives passed the conference report on the Cromnibus on September 26, 2018, at 5:26 p.m. in a roll call vote of 361 – 61.

To see how your elected officials stack up or other votes that compose the Liberty Score, view our full scorecard here.

Conservative position: NO

U.S. Senate

YEAs — 93

Alexander (R-TN)

Baldwin (D-WI)

Barrasso (R-WY)

Bennet (D-CO)

Blumenthal (D-CT)

Blunt (R-MO)

Booker (D-NJ)

Boozman (R-AR)

Brown (D-OH)

Burr (R-NC)

Cantwell (D-WA)

Capito (R-WV)

Cardin (D-MD)

Carper (D-DE)

Casey (D-PA)

Cassidy (R-LA)

Collins (R-ME)

Coons (D-DE)

Corker (R-TN)

Cornyn (R-TX)

Cortez Masto (D-NV)

Cotton (R-AR)

Crapo (R-ID)

Cruz (R-TX)

Daines (R-MT)

Donnelly (D-IN)

Duckworth (D-IL)

Durbin (D-IL)

Enzi (R-WY)

Ernst (R-IA)

Feinstein (D-CA)

Fischer (R-NE)

Gardner (R-CO)

Gillibrand (D-NY)

Graham (R-SC)

Grassley (R-IA)

Harris (D-CA)

Hassan (D-NH)

Hatch (R-UT)

Heinrich (D-NM)

Heitkamp (D-ND)

Heller (R-NV)

Hirono (D-HI)

Hoeven (R-ND)

Hyde-Smith (R-MS)

Inhofe (R-OK)

Isakson (R-GA)

Johnson (R-WI)

Jones (D-AL)

Kaine (D-VA)

Kennedy (R-LA)

King (I-ME)

Klobuchar (D-MN)

Kyl (R-AZ)

Lankford (R-OK)

Leahy (D-VT)

Manchin (D-WV)

Markey (D-MA)

McCaskill (D-MO)

McConnell (R-KY)

Menendez (D-NJ)

Merkley (D-OR)

Moran (R-KS)

Murkowski (R-AK)

Murphy (D-CT)

Murray (D-WA)

Nelson (D-FL)

Peters (D-MI)

Portman (R-OH)

Reed (D-RI)

Risch (R-ID)

Roberts (R-KS)

Rounds (R-SD)

Rubio (R-FL)

Schatz (D-HI)

Schumer (D-NY)

Scott (R-SC)

Shaheen (D-NH)

Shelby (R-AL)

Smith (D-MN)

Stabenow (D-MI)

Sullivan (R-AK)

Tester (D-MT)

Thune (R-SD)

Tillis (R-NC)

Udall (D-NM)

Van Hollen (D-MD)

Warner (D-VA)

Warren (D-MA)

Whitehouse (D-RI)

Wicker (R-MS)

Wyden (D-OR)

Young (R-IN)

NAYs — 7

Flake (R-AZ)

Lee (R-UT)

Paul (R-KY)

Perdue (R-GA)

Sanders (I-VT)

Sasse (R-NE)

Toomey (R-PA)

House of Representatives*

*Minority party (Democrats) in italics

YEAs — 361

NAYS — 61

NOT VOTING — 6

*Minority party (Democrats) in italics