Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday called for a vote to start debate on a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill that hasn't yet been written, and that's a problem, Rep. Matt Rosendale said on Newsmax Wednesday.
"I always thought that you actually had to have a piece of legislation written and prepared and ready before you could start debating it," the Montana Republican told Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "The people across our country, first of all, recognize that you can't debate a document that hasn't even been created yet."
Republicans have said they will block the vote to bring the proposed bill up for a debate, but Schumer is under pressure to advance it and President Joe Biden's other domestic spending package before the Senate goes into recess in early August, reports CNBC.
Schumer will need the votes of 10 Republicans, but the party members have threatened to vote against any push to move the bill before it's written.
Americans also understand that the bill, if approved, will pump money into the economy that will not go directly toward infrastructure investments but will cause massive inflation, said Rosendale.
"Right now we see a dozen eggs at $2," said Rosendale. "We see a loaf of bread at $3.50. We see a gallon of milk at $4. We see gasoline at $3.20 a gallon, literally, a dollar a gallon more than it was a year ago. This is a heavy heavy burden and a tax, if you will, on the working people across our country."
Rosendale also warned that Democrats may try to push agenda items like voting reform measures or amnesty for illegal immigrants into the bill once it's written.
"We're expecting that they're going to try and push amnesty into the legislation," he said. "We're expecting that they're going to try and push the federalization of elections into this piece of legislation."
Americans are used to hearing about lawmakers voting for legislation they haven't looked at, Rosendale added, but not voting on laws that aren't yet written.
Schumer has defended the deadline, saying that the vote is "simply that the Senate is ready to begin debating a bipartisan infrastructure bill, "but we don't even have any document that they can begin to debate, so this is all just theater again," said Rosendale.
Rosendale has also written a letter to the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee concerning athletes who stage protests such as turning away from the flag or kneeling during the National Anthem.
"This letter was about was just reminding the Olympic Committee of their own rules to just uphold their rules," he said. "Rule 50 (is) to make sure that there is no racial, religious or political demonstrations or propaganda that is spread or distributed on sites or venues, and that's it. Let us watch the games. Let us watch athletes across the globe compete and then let us cheer the American athletes that are victorious."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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