Sen. Rand Paul said on Friday that he would not support the $1.1 trillion spending bill passed by the House to keep the federal government running because the measure was too long and was being rushed into passage.
"It's an indictment of the whole process," the Kentucky Republican told
Sean Hannity on his Fox News program. "We’ve got a 2,500-page bill.
"No one will have a chance to read this bill, much less have it printed in time for everyone to read," Paul said. "And it's a crummy way to run your government because the bill's 2,500 pages long.
"I'm a no-vote on it, because I won't get a chance to look at the entire bill before we can vote on it. It's a crummy way to run government."
The Senate was debating the measure
that passed on a 219-206 House vote on Thursday. While 162 Republicans voted for it, 67 did not. That bill was 1,774 pages.
The upper chamber was expected to vote on the bill on Monday. To keep the government afloat, the House passed a measure to temporarily extend the current funding so the Senate can act on the larger bill.
Paul slammed the Senate version of the bill, which has been attacked by both Republicans and Democrats, because it is being rushed through without sufficient debate and study.
"There will be no amendments. There will be no reforms," he told Hannity. "This is how we've been running government for a decade. We lurch from deadline to deadline, and we now have an $18 trillion debt."
Paul noted that he would work to end this approach to the budget process when the GOP controls both congressional houses in January.
"When we're in control, let's pass every appropriations bill and let's put thousands of instructions in every bill to the president on how to spend money," he said. "Because next year we will control completely the power of the purse — and all I can say is we damn well better use it."
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.