U.S. Rep. Jerry Carl (R-Mobile) said he’s “proud” of this year’s Agriculture Appropriations bill that was recently voted out of committee.

The $25.3 billion bill invests in programs at the USDA and Food and Drug Administration, and is now headed to the full House for approval. The amount of funding is 2% less than the current levels and 12.5% lower than the amount Biden asked for in his budget request earlier this year.

Carl, who sits on the Appropriations Committee, highlighted the positives of the legislation Thursday.

I voted to pass this year’s Agriculture Appropriations bill out of committee because it supports our rural communities and strengthens our national security while reining in wasteful Washington spending. pic.twitter.com/2rDZ4OzLvu

— Rep. Jerry Carl (@RepJerryCarl) June 15, 2023

“I am so proud to be a part of the claw-back of wasteful spending of the COVID spending money,” Carl said. “This bill does an excellent job to rein in wasteful spending by clawing back billions of dollars of Democrat spending in the Inflation Reduction Act and the American Rescue Plan.”

Some of the Democratic members of the committee lashed out against the plan.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), ranking member of the Appropriations Committee, called the plan “reckless.”

“My colleagues, these allocations are either an attempt to appease the same reckless faction that would rather have us default than uphold our constitutional duty,” she said, “or they are evidence that the same Republican members who voted for the debt deal no longer support it.”

Carl disagreed, and said moving some of the unspent COVID money to other areas is the responsible thing to do.

“Even the administration has agreed COVID is over,” he said. “Keeping this money in the account and watching it go to waste would not be a responsible use of taxpayers’ money. By clawing back this money, we’ve prevented the continuation of wasteful spending by unelected bureaucrats.”

“So in this room let’s get serious about doing the job of the people and quit taking cheap shots at one another.”

Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee