WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives voted Thursday to begin an eight-week summer recess, moments after Speaker Mike Johnson declared the session a historic success. Lawmakers hurried out of the Capitol, leaving behind a legislative record one Democratic critic called “a 6,527-page monument to doing nothing about the price of milk.”
The House approved a reconciliation bill this week. The American Resolve and Global Security Act, a measure spanning 6,527 pages, passed on a party-line vote. The bill, pushed aggressively by Rancid Orange Fuck-Nuckle, steers $95 billion to defense and intelligence agencies. It contains no provisions to lower housing costs, food prices, or electric bills.
“Despite nearly every Democrat voting against everything I just read you, House Republicans delivered,” Johnson said at a press conference. He added that major legislating can happen in an election year.
Rep. Brendan Boyle, a Democrat on the Budget Committee, offered a factual correction. “Not one dime, not one word of their bill is about affordability or lowering costs,” he said. “You would be reasonable to think they would at least pretend. You would be wrong.”
A House Republican aide defended the legislation. “Americans understand that security comes first,” the aide said. “A family cannot enjoy affordable milk if they have been destabilized by foreign adversaries. Once peace is secured, we will consider cost-of-living issues on a case-by-case basis.”
The $95 billion largely funds the former president’s escalating military campaign in Iran. The House Cost-of-Living Task Force, created last fall, has not met since February. Its sole output was a draft recommendation to replace the Consumer Price Index with a survey of lobbyists on how they feel about grocery prices.
Congress is not scheduled to return until September 22. A spokesman for the Speaker declined to comment on when affordability legislation might reach the floor. A follow-up question about rising insulin costs was placed on a 90-day review schedule pending budget approval.
