Housing, and Urban Affairs (2015–2021) United States Senate Committee on the Budget (2018–2019) Caucuses Senate Republican Conference Political positions Cotton is considered politically conservative. The American Conservative Union's Center for Legislative Accountability gives him a lifetime rating of 86.06. 2023 Omnibus Appropriations Bill Cotton was one of 18 Republican senators to vote for the $1.7 trillion omnibus bill that former President Donald Trump criticized. The bill earmarked $45 billion more for Ukraine to defend itself against Russia, but prohibited funding for more immigration barriers in the U.S. and did not raise border enforcement spending past current inflation levels. Race relations Cotton drew scrutiny for columns he wrote for The Harvard Crimson about race relations in America, calling Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton "race-hustling charlatans" and saying race relations "would almost certainly improve if we stopped emphasizing race in our public life." In 2016, Cotton rejected the claim that too many criminals are being jailed, that there is over-incarceration in the United States, as "Law enforcement is able to arrest or identify a likely perpetrator for only 19 percent of property crimes and 47 percent of violent crimes. If anything, we have an under-incarceration problem". Cotton said that reduced sentencing for felons would destabilize the United States, arguing that "I saw this in Baghdad. We’ve seen it again in Afghanistan." In November 2018, while arguing against a bipartisan criminal justice reform bill, Cotton incorrectly said that there had been no hearings on the bill. PolitiFact stated Cotton had "ignored years of congressional debate and hearings on the general topics of the bill, as well as the consideration and bipartisan passage of largely similar bills at the House committee level, by the full House, and by the Senate Judiciary Committee." Arguing against the bill in question, the FIRST STEP Act, Cotton asserted that "convicts of certain sex-related crimes could accrue credits making them eligible for supervised release or 'pre-release' to a halfway house". A spokesperson for Mike Lee responded that "just because a federal offense is not on the specific list of ineligible offenses doesn't mean inmates who committed [a] non-specified offense will earn early release". The bill passed 87–12 on December 18, 2018. Cotton voted against it. Black Lives Matter Following the murder of George Floyd, Cotton rejected the view that there is "systemic racism in the criminal justice system in America". Amid the ensuing protests, Cotton advocated on Twitter that