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Spending restrictions in federal budget include everything imaginable

Washington Insider Jamie Dupree
By Jamie Dupree
Dec 22, 2015

When you take a deep dive into the giant, year-end measure approved by Congress last Friday that will fund the operations of the federal government for the rest of this fiscal year, the details of that “Omnibus” bill reveal hundreds of spending restrictions that will be slapped on the Executive Branch in terms of how your tax dollars are spent.

“None of the funds,” is the phrase to look for in these bills, where the Congress can spell out how money cannot be spent by the federal government – the “Power of the Purse.”

The spending restrictions start on page 28 of the bill, covering funding in the Department of Agriculture, where the bill says, “none of the funds available to the Farm Service Agency shall be used to close Farm Service Agency county offices.”

The restrictions include everything imaginable, even a specific provision that says government credit cards can’t be used to pay for “topless or nude entertainers.”

Let’s take a look at some of the 494 instances where the bill spells out spending limits in the Omnibus. Here are the highlights:

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Jamie Dupree

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