Vote Alert: Suspend the debt ceiling, cancel the budget caps, and increase spending by $321 billion

With this vote on the Bipartisan Budget Act, Congress undid the only successful limitation on government spending of the last decade, and it was undone under a Republican president with a GOP Senate majority.

This budget deal, negotiated between Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., cancels the budget caps for the final two years of the Budget Control Act and increases spending by $321 billion over two years. Congress suspended the debt ceiling until 2021, guaranteeing that the United States will accrue at least $2 trillion in additional debt during that time, and likely more. While proponents of the deal argue that there are $77.4 billion in spending offsets, the fact is most of those “offsets” are just a paper agreement that Congress will agree to spend less on entitlement programs in 10 years. Congress never agrees to spend less on entitlement programs.

Lawmakers on both sides celebrated these irresponsible increases in spending because the bill did not include so-called “poison pill” amendments. In plain English, that means this spending deal did not add additional funding for a border wall, did not defund Planned Parenthood, and did not include any sort of conservative policy, all the while funding Democratic Party priorities like welfare and Obamacare without any reforms to decrease government spending.

This vote was the last debt limit vote of President Trump’s first term in office. This was the last chance of Trump’s first term to fight for conservative budget priorities and GOP leadership, and most Republicans in Congress did not want to have that fight.

The House of Representatives passed the Bipartisan Budget Act on July 25, 2019 at 5:10 p.m. ET in a roll call vote of 284 – 149.

The Senate passed the Bipartisan Budget Act on August 1, 2019 at 11:54 a.m. ET in a roll call vote of 67 – 28.

CR Position: NO

U.S. House of Representatives*

*Minority party (Republicans) in italics

YEAs — 284

NAYs — 149

*Minority party (Republicans) in italics

U.S. Senate

YEAs — 67

Alexander (R-TN)

Baldwin (D-WI)

Barrasso (R-WY)

Blumenthal (D-CT)

Blunt (R-MO)

Boozman (R-AR)

Brown (D-OH)

Burr (R-NC)

Cantwell (D-WA)

Capito (R-WV)

Cardin (D-MD)

Casey (D-PA)

Collins (R-ME)

Coons (D-DE)

Cornyn (R-TX)

Cortez Masto (D-NV)

Cramer (R-ND)

Crapo (R-ID)

Duckworth (D-IL)

Durbin (D-IL)

Ernst (R-IA)

Feinstein (D-CA)

Gillibrand (D-NY)

Graham (R-SC)

Grassley (R-IA)

Hassan (D-NH)

Heinrich (D-NM)

Hirono (D-HI)

Hoeven (R-ND)

Hyde-Smith (R-MS)

Inhofe (R-OK)

Jones (D-AL)

Kaine (D-VA)

King (I-ME)

Leahy (D-VT)

Markey (D-MA)

McConnell (R-KY)

McSally (R-AZ)

Menendez (D-NJ)

Merkley (D-OR)

Moran (R-KS)

Murkowski (R-AK)

Murphy (D-CT)

Murray (D-WA)

Perdue (R-GA)

Peters (D-MI)

Portman (R-OH)

Reed (D-RI)

Roberts (R-KS)

Rosen (D-NV)

Rounds (R-SD)

Schatz (D-HI)

Schumer (D-NY)

Shaheen (D-NH)

Shelby (R-AL)

Sinema (D-AZ)

Smith (D-MN)

Stabenow (D-MI)

Sullivan (R-AK)

Thune (R-SD)

Udall (D-NM)

Van Hollen (D-MD)

Warner (D-VA)

Whitehouse (D-RI)

Wicker (R-MS)

Wyden (D-OR)

Young (R-IN)

NAYs — 28

Bennet (D-CO)

Blackburn (R-TN)

Braun (R-IN)

Carper (D-DE)

Cassidy (R-LA)

Cotton (R-AR)

Cruz (R-TX)

Daines (R-MT)

Enzi (R-WY)

Fischer (R-NE)

Gardner (R-CO)

Hawley (R-MO)

Johnson (R-WI)

Kennedy (R-LA)

Klobuchar (D-MN)

Lankford (R-OK)

Lee (R-UT)

Manchin (D-WV)

Paul (R-KY)

Risch (R-ID)

Romney (R-UT)

Rubio (R-FL)

Sasse (R-NE)

Scott (R-FL)

Scott (R-SC)

Tester (D-MT)

Tillis (R-NC)

Toomey (R-PA)

Not Voting - 5

Booker (D-NJ)

Harris (D-CA)

Isakson (R-GA)

Sanders (I-VT)

Warren (D-MA)