WASHINGTON, D.C. — First Distict Congressman Brad Finstad (MN-01) voted against the Consolidations Appropriations Act of 2023, a $1.7 trillion spending bill that passed the House on a 225-201 vote cast mostly across party lines.

The bill will finance federal agencies thorugh September and provide more aid to Ukraine.

Finstad called the bill “a massive, unprecedented, lame-duck ‘omnibus’ spending package.”

“The people of Minnesota’s First District sent me to Washington to fight for their values in Congress,” said Finstad. “A more than four-thousand-page spending bill that is filled with $1.7 trillion of misplaced priorities and record-high levels of wasteful spending is not fiscally responsible and does not align with the priorities of constituents in my district.

“Southern Minnesotans deserve better. Passing critical legislation at the last minute with fewer than forty-eight hours to review the bill is no way to govern and certainly lacks southern Minnesota common sense,” he said.

Finstad said the bill included a $410 million allocation for five Middle Eastern countries to use for enhanced border security; yet, the bill expressly restricts U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) from using any funds to hire border agents or for border security technology and capabilities. Finstad had introduced an unsuccessful amendment to strike these restrictions on CBP funding:

“It makes very little sense that this massive spending package would allocate millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars for border security efforts in countries like Lebanon and Egypt, while simultaneously denying the same resources to Customs and Border Patrol for securing our own borders,” said Finstad.