By ELISSA SALAMY | The National Desk
WASHINGTON (TND) — President Joe Biden signed a $1.5 trillion spending bill last week that passed in the House — but only 24 hours after the bill was released, according to watchdog group Open The Books.
“It was 2,700 pages long,” said Open The Books’ Adam Andrzejewski to The National Desk’s Jan Jeffcoat. “When lawmakers voted on this thing, they didn't know what they were voting on.”
The bill includes about $14 billion in emergency funding to boost humanitarian aid, security and economic assistance for Ukraine.
Republicans cheered because the Department of Defense — their budget went up by 6%. Democrats cheered because the social service agencies and executive agencies — their spending went up by 7%,” said Andrzejewski. “However, it was passed so fast, nobody knew what was in there. And you and I are paying the bill.”
Andrzejewski said some of the “pet projects” included in the bill are $3 million for a fisherman’s coop facility in Guam and $1 million for a “farm-to-refrigerator training facility” in Pennsylvania.
Open The Books is sponsoring a petition to prevent bills from being released and passed in a short timeframe, forcing a “72-hour, three-day timeout” to allow citizens and lawmakers to read the legislation.
“I've got 15,000 signatures on that petition at our website at OpenTheBooks.com,” said Andrzejewski.