The bill President Donald Trump signed in order to end the government shutdown also included mandatory spending that will contradict his policy goals.
The $1.2 trillion package included funding for specific entities—some of which the Trump administration is currently threatening to defund. Other funded entities provide legal defenses for illegal aliens facing deportation, while some hospitals receiving money practice late-term abortions.
“Avoiding a protracted government shutdown of some of the largest agencies like [the Department of Health and Human Services] and the Department of War is a laudable goal, but passing bills that undermine the president’s agenda to cut woke and weaponized spending is not the way to do it,” Connor Semelsberger, government relations director at The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Signal in a statement Thursday.
“The Trump administration has taken more steps to eliminate woke spending then any president in recent history, starting first and foremost with entities pushing horrific practices like gender mutilation of children and late term abortions of unborn children whom can feel pain,” he added. “Unfortunately, the appropriations bills passed by Congress provide funding to these exact entities against the will of the American taxpayers.”
When Congress funds the government, each agency usually has discretion in how to spend the money. Yet Congress can stipulate that the agency give the money to a specific entity in a process called “congressionally directed spending.” This mandatory spending—often referred to as “earmarks”—does not appear in the text of the bill Trump signed, though the bill mentions it. Instead, the Senate Appropriations Committee released the earmarks last month, in files that stretch to hundreds of pages.
Here are five of the most egregious examples.
1. Funding Health Centers Performing Transgender ‘Treatments’
While the Department of Health and Human Services is currently investigating some hospitals for performing experimental medical interventions on minors, the funding bill explicitly directs taxpayer money to those hospitals, albeit for other purposes.
Fox News reported that Seattle Children’s Hospital in Washington state will receive $3 million, due to a request from Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., while the Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago will receive $1 million, thanks to Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. The Department of Health and Human Services has investigated both hospitals for performing the “chemical and surgical mutilation” of minors. Lurie has paused transgender interventions for minors amid the investigation.
Both senators defended the funding in comments to Fox News, emphasizing the health centers’ work. Critics note, however, that money is fungible and that these earmarks appear to directly undermine HHS’ ability to use a threat of defunding to convince the health centers to cease operating on minors.
Neither Seattle Children’s Hospital nor Lurie Children’s Hospital responded to The Daily Signal’s request for comment by press time. The Daily Signal reached out to the senators for comment, and did not receive responses by publication time.
2. Funding for Health Centers That Perform Abortions
Semelsberger also flagged earmarks for health centers that perform abortions.
He drew specific attention to a $4 million grant for ChristianaCare Health Services, requested by Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del. According to its website, ChristianaCare offers “pregnancy termination services” “from early in the first trimester to 23 weeks gestation.” Pro-life groups claim that unborn babies can feel pain as early as 12 to 15 weeks gestation, while pro-abortion groups state that they cannot feel pain until 24 weeks gestation.
ChristianaCare Health Services did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment by press time. The Daily Signal reached out to Coons’ office for comment and did not receive a response by publication time.
3. Immigration Groups
The earmarks also include millions for organizations that resettle refugees, provide legal defense for illegal aliens facing deportation, and advocate for increased immigration.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., requested $300,000 for Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, recently rebranded as Global Refuge, which faces accusations that it provides services to illegal aliens, not just refugees. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., requested $680,000 for the Dorcas International Institute, which provides “deportation defense,” according to its website.
Neither Global Refuge nor Dorcas International Institute responded to The Daily Signal’s request for comment by press time. The Daily Signal reached out to the senators for comment, and did not receive responses by publication time.
4. AFL-CIO
The AFL-CIO, America’s largest federation of labor unions, has long supported Democrats and liberal causes. It funded many of the left-wing activist groups that sent staff and ideas into President Joe Biden’s administration, as I detail in my book, “The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government.” The Michigan AFL-CIO lobbies for specific bills in the state Legislature.
Yet Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., requested $2 million in an earmark for the Michigan AFL-CIO Workforce Development Institute. The money would go to “expanding workforce training,” but critics note that money is fungible and would support the institution as a whole, allowing the union to spend more money on other priorities.
The AFL-CIO did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment by press time. The Daily Signal reached out to Slotkin’s office for comment and did not receive a response by publication time.
5. Union Activist Group
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., requested $500,000 for the National Domestic Workers Alliance’s New York chapter, for “programming to support low income workers.”
The National Domestic Workers Alliance, a union-like organization that represents workers in industries that fall outside the scope of traditional unions, claims on its website to “mobilize domestic workers, supporters and partners to organize and advocate for solutions that will improve working conditions and economic security for domestic workers and beyond.”
An activist group, NDWA supported California’s AB5, a bill imposing onerous requirements on independent contractors. As I outline in “The Woketopus,” the bill’s supporters admitted that AB5 aimed to drive more people into unions, increasing their economic and political power.
AB5 has caused considerable economic pain in California, and the Legislature has amended the measure several times, adding more than 100 exemptions to the original law.
The NDWA did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment by press time. The Daily Signal reached out to Schumer’s office for comment and did not receive a response by publication time.
