GOP lawmakers, Elon Musk, reject spending bill over pork: 'This bill should not pass'

GOP lawmakers, along with Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, are lamenting so-called "pork" tucked into the spending bill that House Speaker Mike Johnson unveiled to avoid a partial government ahead of the Friday deadline.

Johnson has said the bill, which would fund the government through mid-March, is a result of bipartisan negotiations.

Some of the items causing controversy among Republican lawmakers is the decision to include about $100 billion of disaster aid for hurricanes Milton and Helene inside of the spending bill, rather than vote for it as a standalone bill.

"What do RFK Stadium, $50 billion for Big Pharma, and two new Smithsonian museums do for Americans devastated by the hurricanes?" wrote Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, on his X account on Tuesday night.

Transferring RFK Stadium from the federal government to Washington, D.C. is included in the full text of the spending bill. Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., a non-voting House member with committee assignments, applauded inclusion of the RFK Stadium language in the bill.

“I am pleased this important bill was included in the CR, which must pass this week for the federal government to avoid a shutdown,” Norton said. “The RFK Stadium bill is a win-win for the federal and D.C. governments."

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., wrote on X that "the first 9 pages of this Continuing Resolution are all we need to keep the government open; the other 1,500+ pages are a handbook on how the government plans to waste your tax dollars for a bit."

Musk, the co-lead of the new Department of Government Efficiency established by President-elect Trump, posted a photo of the printed spending bill and wrote: "Ever seen a bigger piece of pork?" In a separate post, Musk said that "this bill should not pass."