Budget Vote Splits Tennessee Senators

Tennessee Senator Bob Corker is the ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee. Credit: Office of Sen. Bob Corker via Facebook

Tennessee’s two Republican senators came down on opposing sides of the $1.1 trillion spending bill that passed over the weekend.

Bob Corker voted against the legislation, saying it set a “regrettable precedent of spending above the budget levels established by the original Budget Control Act without proper offsets elsewhere in the budget.”

Lamar Alexander saw the facts a bit differently, saying the legislation does meet the caps set in 2011. He says the budget bill “helps keep spending in check,” while also funding two big projects in the state. They include a proposal to build the world’s fastest supercomputer and at Oak Ridge National Lab and a Uranium Processing Facility at nearby Y-12.

Both Corker and Alexander opposed Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-Texas) parliamentary move to defund the White House’s executive orders on immigration.

“‎While the president’s executive actions on immigration are reprehensible and deserve a strong response, I value the oath I took to support and defend the Constitution too much to exploit it for political expediency,” Corker said in a statement.