WASHINGTON – Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) issued the following statement Tuesday after the Senate approved a $2.3 trillion spending bill.

“For almost a year, Utahns have been fighting through terrible conditions to work, to find work, to serve their neighbors and communities as best they can. Congress has failed to meet their standard of courage and duty. This COVID relief bill - like the one Senate Democrats blocked for months out of pure partisan politics - contains some much-needed items to help Utahns recover including more funding for faster vaccine deployment and an expanded charitable deduction.”

“Unfortunately, the COVID relief bill has been packaged together with a much larger government spending bill that is bursting at the seams with special interest handouts slipped into to 5,593 pages of legislative text in the dark of night. No one who voted for this bill read it. This process has not overcome Washington dysfunction; it is Washington dysfunction. Even during a pandemic this is not how governing should be done. It is unfair to the American people, and that is why I voted no.”