WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Senator Rick Scott wrote an op-ed for the Tampa Bay Times slamming the $1.7 TRILLION Pelosi-Schumer Omnibus Spending Bill for forcing Florida families to accept billions in reckless spending in exchange for needed disaster relief.

In the op-ed, Sen. Rick Scott wrote, “In typical Washington fashion, Florida families fighting hard to recover from Hurricane Ian are being held hostage in exchange for approval of the massive and reckless $1.7 trillion spending bill.

Immediately after the storm passed, I made clear that I would fight for and support a standalone disaster aid funding package to get Floridians the assistance they deserve and need to recover. To tell folks in the Sunshine State who are still picking up the pieces left by Hurricane Ian that this aid only comes as part of a 4,000+ page omnibus spending bill is sickening. I won’t stand for it.

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America’s national debt is $31 trillion and growing. When are we going to be so fed up that we decide this isn’t sustainable?

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Let’s be clear: These spending bills aren’t just our essential duties. They become huge policy and spending casseroles feeding Washington’s favorite type of compromise where everyone gets everything they want. The result is more debt, more inflation and less accountability in how Congress spends your tax dollars.

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The truth is, at more than 4,000 pages, the spending bill has a lot of policies and funding priorities I fought for this year. It has more funding to preserve and protect Florida’s Everglades, funding to support our military and, yes, disaster aid for the families and communities devastated by Hurricane Ian. I support all of these things, but I will never support the other parts of the bill that continue gross, reckless spending of taxpayer dollars.

These are things like $2.3 million so the Department of Education can reach out to student loan borrowers and urge them to apply for Biden’s illegal debt forgiveness program, more than 7,500 member projects, funding for Biden to continue supersizing the Internal Revenue Service with 87,000 new agents and continuation of policies that force every family to give the IRS visibility into their personal finances.

I ran for Senate Republican Leader because I am sick and tired of seeing dysfunction in Washington create hard times for families in the Sunshine State.

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Democrats want to hold us hostage by saying that we can have hurricane relief in exchange for billions in reckless spending and hundreds of pages of radical policy. I say no.

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I promised you that I’d do that and I won’t go back on my word.”

Read the full op-ed in the Tampa Bay Times HERE.

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