Speaker John Boehner’s more than $1 trillion omnibus spending bill is actually getting longer -- it grew an extra 171 pages last night. “With the adoption of the rule in the House, the CRomnibus grew from 1,603 pages to 1,774 pages,” a congressional GOP aide tells Breitbart News. “The rule amended the bill to add some material on pensions that total 171 pages.”
The bill is stalled in the House right now and it’s unclear if Boehner and his lieutenants, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California and Majority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana, will be able to save it.
The bill has come under enormous criticism from both Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals. The extra pages were added during the House Rules Committee process, where that committee's chairman Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) agreed to insert them. Sessions is taking heat from the grassroots back home over his role in enabling Obama's executive amnesty through this bill--and actually chose not to lead the debate on the rule on the House floor--opting instead for Boehner ally Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) to face off against Rules Committee ranking member Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) earlier on Thursday.
Still, he's active behind the scenes. After Rep. Kerry Bentivolio switched his vote to allow to the "Cromnibus" to survive a procedural vote, a Roll Call reporter tweeted: "Sessions spots Bentivolio in the Rayburn subway. Says 'You're a good man, Santa.'"
Most lawmakers have publicly admitted there is no way they could read this bill before voting on it.
