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President Joe Biden on Saturday signed a $460 billion spending bill into law, averting a partial government shutdown that would have taken effect this weekend.
This partial budget deal covers funding for six major areas of government, which encompass military and veterans affairs departments, agriculture, commerce, justice, transportation, housing and urban development and energy.
On Friday evening, the Senate had voted 75 to 22 to approve the package after the House passed it earlier this week.
The agreement marks a step forward in the push to secure a permanent budget plan for the rest of the fiscal year, which started Oct. 1.The other six appropriations bills that keep the rest of the government funded are due to expire March 22.
This is the fourth time this fiscal year that Congress has had to pass a short-term spending bill to keep the government funded and avert a shutdown.
Democrats have been pushing for the continued full funding of a special food assistance program for women, infants and children. They also secured wins on rent assistance and pay for infrastructure employees like air traffic controllers and railway inspectors.
Meanwhile, Republicans also considered the first half of funding package as a win as they declared victories on veterans’ gun ownership and funding cuts to government agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The $460 billion legislation, which packaged six of the 12 annual spending bills, was passed on lopsided bipartisan votes in the House on Wednesday, 339 to 85, and in the Senate on Friday, 75 to 22, just in time to beat a midnight deadline when funding was set to lapse. Mr. Biden ordered preparations for a partial shutdown to halt until he could sign the bill on Saturday.
The measure will largely hold the funding of the affected agencies to the levels in the debt limit and spending deal negotiated last year by Mr. Biden and Mr. Johnson’s predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, keeping domestic spending relatively flat outside of certain veterans’ programs.
While Republicans managed to insert some relatively modest policy provisions into the package, their most polarizing demands were rejected. Among the policies Republicans failed to include in the spending package was a move stripping funding for a new rule by the Food and Drug Administration allowing the abortion drug mifepristone to be distributed through the mail and at retail locations.
Congress now has 13 days to figure out the six remaining spending bills unless it votes to give itself more time, a challenge for Mr. Johnson, who is under enormous pressure from hard-liners in his conference to hold out for deeper spending cuts in domestic programs even though he has an extremely narrow majority.
Wilmington, Del., to fly to Atlanta for a campaign rally. It will extend funding through the rest of the fiscal year, ending Sept. 30, for about half of the government, including the Departments of Agriculture, Energy, Justice, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Veterans Affairs.
But the rest of the government, including the Pentagon and the Homeland Security Department, remained on short-term life support, facing the prospect of running out of money by March 22 unless Congress and the president can agree on a plan. In his short tenure, Speaker Mike Johnson has made clear his desire to avoid a shutdown, even to the point of relying on Democratic votes, but the path ahead remains tricky.
In
a statement issued by the White House, Mr. Biden made no mention of the
outstanding issues but simply expressed his gratitude to eight
congressional leaders for defusing the crisis over the first half of
government. “Thank you,” he wrote, naming the eight “for their
leadership. See More
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