AAF: Calling Balls and Strikes on the First Minibus

For more information, please contact AAF Policy Director John Shelton at jshelton@advancingamericanfreedom.com

AAF: Calling Balls and Strikes on the First Minibus (AG, CJS, E&W, Interior, MilCon-VA, THUD)

Updated March 6, 2024 to reflect AAF’s successful campaign to remove the woke earmark.

THE GOOD — Contains protections for religious liberty, blocks intrusions on veterans’ Second Amendment rights, prohibits selling Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to China, modernizes the Navy’s shipyards, and funds nuclear energy.

• Prohibits the DOJ from investigating religious institutions on the basis of their religious

beliefs and discriminating against students receiving financial aid on the basis of their beliefs, establishing a watered-down version of Roy Amendment protections. • Protects veterans’ rights to bear arms by prohibiting the Department of Veterans Affairs

from reporting veterans to NICS without a judge’s consent. • Prohibits selling emergency SPR petroleum to China. • Increases funding for the Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Plan (SIOP), which

modernizes the Navy’s aging shipyards to ensure that the fleet is ready for action.

• $1.7 billion for nuclear energy research and development. THE BAD — No floor amendments, sidesteps regular order, misleading numbers.

• The minibus sidesteps the Rules Committee and a floor amendment process. • Claims to cut the EPA by 10% or $977 million.

o Reality: This cut is largely backfilled by superfund taxes. Democrats claim that

EPA is only reduced by three percent from last year’s levels. • Claims to cut the FBI budget by $654 million.

o Reality: $621.9 million is achieved by defunding the FBI’s new HQ. o The FBI sees a real cut of just $32 million for salaries and personnel.

THE UGLY — Fails to support our allies, leaves COVID spending intact, excludes important conservative provisions, and contains an earmark promoting drag for kids.

• No funding for lethal aid for Ukraine, Israel, or Taiwan.

o AAF plan would have sent aid to allies and cut spending. • Holds stable the IRA’s Green New Deal Provisions:

o $15 billion for “transformative investments in clean energy” in E&W. o $3.5 billion for “the transition to a global clean energy economy” in Energy. • Democrats are bragging about rejecting “poison pill riders” from the House.

o Does not defund Critical Race Theory. o Does not prohibit the VA from violating federal law to offer abortions. o Does not prohibit funding for DOJ censoring lawful speech as misinformation. o Does not prohibit funding for ATF pistol brace rule. o Does not prohibit COVID-19 mask and vaccine mandates. • Woke Earmark: See more here and here.

o $1 million for the renovation of the “William Way LGBT Community

Center,” which hosts kink parties and drag performances by young children. o There are still over 6,000 other earmarks in the bill.

BOTTOMLINE – These are just some of the good, bad, and ugly provisions across the 1,000+ pages of text and supplemental information of the half-trillion dollar package.

📄 Download the full PDF