Guess which Colorado lawmakers voted against the winning spending bill

 

The U.S. House this morning approved a massive spending bill that will keep the government running until just before the 2016 election. But not all Colorado lawmakers voted for it. 

New Speaker of the House Paul Ryan of Wisconsin needed strong support from Democrats in order to pass the $1.14 trillion budget. 166 Dems voted in favor of the budget package along with 150 Republicans.

The Republicans in Colorado’s delegation offered Ryan little support: Reps. Ken Buck of Greeley, Doug Lamborn of Colorado Springs and Scott Tipton of Cortez all voted against approving the package. Also voting no, among Colorado’s congressional delegation: Democratic Rep. Jared Polis of Boulder.

In a Facebook post issued shortly after the vote, Polis cited ten reasons for not supporting the budget. Those included the insertion of a cybersecurity bill that Polis said is a dangerous intrusion into Americans’ privacy. He also objected to the budget bill’s inclusion of government “pork,” citing sugar subsidies for corporate agriculture, a catfish inspection program that has never inspected a single catfish, money to maintain the nation’s “excessive nuclear weapons arsenal” and tax giveaways to NASCAR and wealthy horse owners.

Republican Rep. Mike Coffman of Aurora voted in favor of the budget bill as did the rest of Colorado’s Democratic delegation, Rep. Diana DeGette of Denver and Ed Perlmutter of Wheat Ridge.

The Senate this morning also passed the spending bill, with both Colorado senators voting in favor. The budget now goes to the White House for approval, where President Obama is expected to sign it before leaving on a two-week Christmas vacation.

 

Photo credit: frankieleon, Creative Commons, Flickr