WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Pat Roberts today released the following statement regarding the FY2014 Omnibus Appropriations Bill which was approved by the Senate with a vote of 72-26:

“Kansas families have to live within a budget,” Roberts said. “As taxpayers, they expect the federal government to do the same. Unfortunately, the $1.11 trillion bill to fund the government’s discretionary spending busted the budget caps we set just a few years ago. We keep talking about the need for fiscal discipline, but Congress and the President just cannot seem to get it done.

“We should have passed a budget that respected the caps so we could get our country further down the path of debt relief. Because this bill busted the budget and lumped massive spending in more than 1500 pages of federal spending and projects, I voted against the bill, despite the fact it included some very important measures that I personally have labored on for years. For example, the bill included money for the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) in Manhattan. This lab is a national security priority. It will greatly augment the work already done at the biosecurity lab I helped bring to the K-State campus when I first began the effort to make Kansas a leader in food security. I fought for Manhattan to win the multi-state NBAF competition on the merits and have worked tirelessly every step of the way to make NBAF a reality for Kansas. I wish the project had moved in regular order through the vetting of a true appropriations process, but that no longer seems to exist in Congress. That process would have allowed Congress to prioritize spending, and I am confident NBAF would have been at the top of the list.

“It gives me no pleasure to vote against a bill that includes an important project into which I have put my heart and soul and many hours of work.

“But that vote was necessary to send a signal we can no longer afford unchecked spending as usual.”

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