WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Ranking Member of the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Committee and a member of the Senate Finance Committee, praised the bipartisan omnibus bill, calling it “genuine investment” in America’s communities and local economies.

“The omnibus spending bill approved by the House of Representatives, and now being considered in the Senate, is a bipartisan rebuke of President Trump’s misplaced priorities and his utter misunderstanding of the important role the federal government plays in supporting our communities and our local economies. What the president disparagingly refers to as ‘Dem giveaways,’ in reality, is genuine investment in infrastructure, public health, a clean environment and job-creating small businesses; investing in our earliest learners, underrepresented communities and higher education; securing our neighborhoods and our cities; fighting back against the scourge of opioid addiction and gun violence; valuing science in the formulation of policy and federal action; and defending our national security against enemies foreign and domestic. This is not a perfect bill — among other problems, it should have included a pathway to citizenship for our Dreamers — but, overall, it takes leadership in places the president has thus far refused and it provides a level of predictability and stability that can never be achieved through repeated continuing resolutions.”

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