WASHINGTON–U.S. Senator John Boozman (R-AR) released the following statement after voting against a partisan spending spree that passed the Senate on a party-line vote:

“We should see this bill for what it truly is – an excuse to authorize opportunistic, wish list spending that Democrats have been eager to enact instead of a proposal focused on addressing the economic and health effects of the coronavirus. This nearly $2 trillion legislation had no input from Republicans, which is disappointing considering the overwhelming support for the five bipartisan bills we crafted last year to respond to the coronavirus pandemic, much of which has yet to be spent. Despite the legislation being touted as a COVID-19 relief bill, less than 10 percent of this package is related to public health.

“It would have been wise to focus funding toward bolstering vaccine deployment, further supporting health care workers and institutions combating the virus, and offering continued assistance to individuals and businesses suffering serious economic consequences as a result of the events of the last year. Instead, Congressional Democrats and the Biden administration have chosen to include bailouts for fiscally mismanaged states and union pension funds, as well as millions for federal arts and humanities programs and billions more to safely reopen K-12 schools when Arkansas has demonstrated previous funding has been sufficient.

“President Biden preached unity, but this bill isn’t the way to achieve that.”