In Monday's episode of Fox Business Network's Kudlow, House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) recommended that the Senate stay clear of passing an omnibus bill to fund the federal government for the next year. He noted that Republicans were able to lift the oil-export ban during the Obama administration and also remove the mandate for vaccinations in the military through leveraging funding, which would be eliminated with an omnibus.
McCarthy declared, “They’re going to take away our opportunity to secure the border, to become energy-independent. Because when those [appropriations] bills get passed, remember what’s happening here, Leahy and Shelby are writing it, two Senators who won’t be there in 15 days. We now have a stronger hand we can play with the Senate and with the administration because we will have the gavel. Do a short-term CR, put it into the end of January, into February. We’re willing to go forward. Larry, one of the best things we were able to do in the country was when it was divided, to lift the ban on selling our oil and gas outside of America. And you know when we did that? We did that in [the] appropriation process when Obama was president, able to negotiate. We can do that same thing now.”
McCarthy added that the removal of the vaccination mandate for the military as part of the National Defense Authorization Act is an example of what Republicans can accomplish when they have leverage and use it.
