2. Border Security

Biden’s open borders policy has been a dereliction of duty to his responsibility to keep America safe. His policy has also hurt migrants, especially children, as their parents are enticed to send their children unaccompanied across the border because they get to remain in the U.S. and receive immigration benefits. A historic 272,745 unaccompanied alien children have crossed the border since Biden took office.

Rather than funding border security measures to address the crisis and these inhumane conditions, the continuing resolution would give another nearly $1.8 billion to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families “Refugee and Entrant Assistance.”

This will continue to fund the administration’s and nongovernmental organizations’ illegal alien smuggling and transportation operations in and throughout the U.S., resulting in even more unaccompanied alien children crossing the border and becoming sex-trafficking victims. No one should be funding this.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., that if this government funding bill does not “address the border crisis immediately,” he will oppose it and urge his GOP colleagues to as well.

Rather than give Biden the blank check he requested to fund more illegal immigration, Congress should use the appropriations bills to advance real solutions to secure the border.

The totally misnamed “Inflation Reduction Act” established an $80 billion slush fund for the Internal Revenue Service. This will add 87,000 new agents, doubling the size of the agency. This new spending comes on top of the nearly $13 billion provided annually to the IRS in the regular appropriations bills.

3. IRS Overreach

The new agents and new funding could be used to subject small businesses and middle-class taxpayers to more IRS scrutiny. This is concerning because the IRS is a scandal-ridden agency with a history of targeting the regime’s political opponents.

Congress should rescind the IRS slush fund as a part of any full year appropriations bill. Lawmakers should also use the spending bills to conduct rigorous oversight of the IRS and require strong taxpayer protections as a condition of annual funding.

4. Student Loan Debt Amnesty

Biden’s student loan debt amnesty is expensive, unfair, and potentially illegal. It could cost taxpayers up to $1 trillion, according to estimates from the Penn Wharton Budget Model.

The annual appropriations bills provide office of student aid administration more than $1 billion in taxpayer funds to administer student loan servicing activities. The appropriations bills should prohibit the Department of Education from using funds to carry out Biden’s debt amnesty.

5. Rein in Executive Overreach

The Biden administration has begun a regulatory blitz, with more than 2,600 active regulatory actions, including 200 economically significant rules that are estimated to have an annual effect on the economy of $100 million or more.

Biden’s executive actions could also cost taxpayers up to $1.5 trillion—so far.

Congress should put a stop to the administrative state and rein in this executive overreach using its power of the purse. Lawmakers can prohibit the use of funds to enforce finalized harmful regulations or to carry out pending regulatory actions. Congress can also use the spending bills to provide oversight and require accountability from the executive branch.

6. Protecting Life

At the beginning of the 117th Congress, 200 representatives and 48 senators took a stand that they would oppose any funding bill that weakened long-standing pro-life provisions.

Not only have congressional liberals proposed gutting protections such as the Hyde Amendment that prohibits federal funds from being spent on abortions, they have advanced a radical pro-abortion agenda that is extreme and out of step with what most Americans across the political spectrum believe.

Planned Parenthood’s most recent annual report shows the organization performed 383,460 abortions in fiscal year 2020 while receiving more than $663 million in taxpayer funding. That is an injustice that must not continue.

Not a single penny of the taxpayers’ dollars should go to the abortion industry. Lawmakers should ensure the appropriations bills protect life.

These are just a few examples of the important policy issues that could be affected by the fiscal year 2023 appropriations process. The 12 annual spending bills cover hundreds of programs and virtually every subject that the federal government touches.

Instead of a lame-duck liberal spending binge, the next Congress should carefully write responsible appropriations bills. The Heritage Foundation’s Budget Blueprint includes more than 100 different policy recommendations for discretionary spending programs.

Lawmakers should go on offense and deliver policy victories for the American people by passing sensible spending bills in the next Congress.