Johnny Isakson praises the passage of CRomnibus

U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga) released a statement late Saturday night praising the passage of the CRomnibus bill in the Senate funding the federal govement until October 2015. The vote for the $1.1 trillion legislation was 56-40.

21 Democrats, 18 Republicans and one independent voted against the bill. The list of all the nay votes can be found here. The other Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss, who is retiring this year and already flew back to his home in Georgia, didn't cast a vote at all because, as he said, senators "did not need my vote."

”The Fiscal Year 2015 Omnibus included a number of important provisions for America and for Georgia," said Isakson in a press release. "First and foremost, the bill keeps the administration on a short leash by giving the Department of Homeland Security, which enforces immigration, only enough funding to operate until February 2015. That allows the new Republican majority to then revisit this agency’s budget and begin to dismantle the effects of the president’s amnesty executive order. I also voted to condemn the president’s amnesty executive action by supporting a point of order tonight declaring it unconstitutional.

”Additionally, the bill includes funding and strong language to ensure the federal govement will continue to pay its share of the cost of Georgia’s number one economic development project -- the expansion and deepening of the Port of Savannah.

”The omnibus bill also includes a provision to rein in the EPA’s overreach with respect to the agency’s ‘waters of the United States’ proposal, which would subject Georgia’s farmers to costly and intrusive federal regulation and would harm Georgia’s biggest industry.

”I will continue my fight next year to reform America’s budget and spending process from an annual to a biennial budget, reserving every other year for mandatory oversight to ensure that we demand accountability from existing programs before we spend money on new ones.

The passage of the bill came into question late last week when Republican Ted Cruz (R-Texas) threatened to hold up the vote and force the Senators to stay in Washington over the Christmas break. But the Texan received so much criticism for it, especially from his own party, that he pulled back and the vote was able to go through on Saturday evening.  Cruz was against the bill because it funded President Barack Obama's immigration executive orders through February 2015.

On Saturday, Cruz settled for calling point of order vote in the Senate on whether Obama's immigration orders are constitutional. Isakson, who is up for reelection in 2016, voted in favor of Cruz's measure along with 21 other Republicans, but the effort failed 22-74. Instead, because the Senate stayed in session longer than expected, Democrats were able to advance several nominations that would have faced a much more difficult process with the majority-Republican Congress coming in January 2015.