Democrats this week began unveiling the 12 measures that will fund the federal government next year, and so far, they include a series of provisions President Trump and congressional Republicans are likely to oppose.
That includes language that would prevent Attorney General William Barr from using federal money to travel outside the Washington area and the removal of a policy preventing illegal immigrants from accessing public housing.
The proposed spending bills also prohibit Trump from extending the border wall and blocks funding for military bases named after Confederate leaders.
“Unfortunately, we are only on our first day of subcommittee markups, and I already have serious concerns about our path forward,” Rep. Kay Granger, of Texas, who is the top Republican on the panel, said. “These appropriations bills are full of controversial language and questionable funding priorities.”
Democrats on Tuesday released their fiscal 2021 spending bills for Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development and the Justice and Commerce Departments.
The $33.2 billion Justice spending measure includes several provisions that target Barr, who Democratic lawmakers accuse of thwarting congressional oversight and working as Trump’s advocate.
The bill includes a policy rider that would block Barr from using federal funds “from supporting Attorney General travel outside the National Capital Region.” It also would block Barr from transferring department funding and would strip the office of $50,000 for “additional Attorney General reception and representation expenses.”
Democrats have objected to Barr’s refusal to testify before the Judiciary Committee, and they have further criticized his travel to help investigate the questionable origins of the yearslong investigation into allegations the 2016 Trump campaign colluded with the Russians.
Barr traveled to Great Britain and Italy last summer to help with an inquiry into the origins of the Trump-Russia inquiry being conducted by the U.S. attorney for Connecticut, John Durham. Democrats have accused Barr of acting primarily in the interest of Trump and not the country.
“While these provisions are intended to force Attorney General Barr to respond to congressional oversight, it would also limit his ability to travel abroad playing detective on Trump conspiracy theories,” Appropriations Committee spokesman Evan Hollander told the Washington Examiner.
In June, Barr declined a Judiciary Committee request for his testimony, citing the ongoing pandemic.
Barr has since agreed to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on July 28.
The Justice Department funding bill also moves to implement provisions in the House-passed police reform measure, including conditioning funding on police departments agreeing to ban no-knock warrants in drug cases, the use of chokeholds or excessive force, eliminating racial profiling and implicit bias, and an end to police department agreements that prevent independent investigations into misconduct.
The bill also would block federal funding for police “crowd control” unless the officers are wearing “clearly visible identification showing their agency affiliation.”
The line was included following weeks of civil unrest in Washington, D.C., and complaints that Washington protesters were facing federal police officers who could not be identified.
Democrats Tuesday introduced a $50.6 billion for Housing and Urban Development. The measure marks an increase of $1.5 billion over last year and is $13.3 billion more than Trump’s 2021 budget request.
The measure reverses a Trump administration move to prevent households with illegal immigrants from accessing federal housing aid and tops a HUD proposal that would allow single-sex homeless shelters to reject transgendered individuals who are the biological opposite sex of the shelter.
Critics of the HUD rule on housing aid said it would result in evictions for 55,000 children living in the country legally who may be living with an illegal immigrant parent or other relative.
Mark Krikorian, an immigration reform advocate and executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, said the House measure is “a messaging bill” that can’t pass the GOP-led Senate.
“Apparently, giving taxpayer-funded welfare benefits to illegal aliens is part of the Democratic message,” Krikorian said. “Seems like a bad idea.”
The homeless shelter provision would block HUD Secretary Ben Carson from reversing an Obama-era rule that requires homeless shelters to admit people based on how they identify themselves.
Critics of the policy say it hurts vulnerable women in homeless shelters who may feel threatened by the presence of a biological male.
But transgender advocacy groups said allowing shelters to turn away transgendered women would amount to discrimination.
“This proposal would have them sleep on the street rather than get help,” officials from the National Low Income Housing Coalition said.
