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Keller @ Large: Rep. Capuano On Federal Spending Bill

BOSTON (CBS) - Congressman Mike Capuano (D-Seventh District) doesn't agree with President Trump on much. But they do share distaste for the process that rammed a 2,200 page omnibus federal spending bill through Congress in less than a day.

As the president put it at his press conference Friday where he grudgingly OK'd the bill: "They create a series of documents that nobody's been able to read because it was just done. You tell me who can read that quickly."

In an interview with WBZ News, Capuano says that rush to spend $1.3 trillion was "one of the reasons" he joined three other members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation in voting no on the measure. But he joined other Democrats in celebrating approval of billions in domestic spending priorities.

"There's money in there for dredging the Boston Harbor, $150 million or so, there's some transit money in there that's very good for Boston, some housing money. So there are several things in there that are good for Massachusetts," he says.

But Capuano is alarmed by provisions he claims expand law enforcement's right to conduct warrant-less searches, and by the failure to protect the so-called Dreamers from a deportation plan ordered by Mr. Trump, a lapse the president tried to blame on the Democrats. "The DACA kids were fine until he messed it up, intentionally and alone," says Capuano. "He alone could fix the problem that he himself created."

And Capuano worries about how the new Trump tariffs might impact our trade-dependent economy.

"The truth is the concept doesn't bother me, but the details matter desperately, and I'm not convinced at the moment that the president has gotten the details right," he says.

The full interview with Congressman Capuano will air Sunday morning, March 25 at 8:35am on the WBZ Morning News.

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