President Biden on Saturday signed a package of $1.2 trillion spending bills after Congress passed the long-awaited legislation just hours earlier, ending the threat of a partial government shutdown.
“This agreement represents a compromise, which means that neither party got everything they wanted,” Biden said in a statement. “But it rejects tough cuts from House Republicans and expands access to child care, invests in cancer research, funds mental health and substance abuse care, strengthens American leadership abroad, and provides resources to secure the border. … This is good news for the American people.”
It took lawmakers six months into the current budget year to get closer to the finish line on government funding, a process that has been slowed by conservatives who have pushed for more policy mandates and deeper spending cuts than the Democratic-led Senate or White House could contemplate. The impasse required several short-term spending bills to keep agencies funded.
The White House said Biden signed the legislation at his home in Wilmington, Delaware, where he was spending the weekend. It was approved in the Senate by a vote of 74 to 24 shortly after funding for some agencies expired at midnight.
But the White House sent a notice shortly after the deadline announcing that the Office of Management and Budget had halted preparations for the shutdown because there was a high degree of confidence that Congress would approve the legislation and the president would sign it on Saturday.
The first package of full-year spending bills, which funded the Departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture and Interior, among others, passed Congress two weeks ago with only hours remaining before funding for those agencies expires. The package Biden signed on Saturday covers the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security and State, as well as other aspects of general government.
Between the two packages, discretionary spending for the budget year will reach about $1.66 trillion. This does not include programs such as Social Security and Medicare, or financing the country's growing debt.
on Ukraine The aid, which Biden and his administration said was needed to help stop the Russian invasion, the package provided $300 million under the umbrella of defense spending. This funding is separate from a large aid package for Ukraine and Israel that has stalled due to resistance from Republicans in the House of Representatives.
In his statement, Biden once again put pressure on Congress to pass additional aid.
“The House must pass a bipartisan National Security Supplement to advance our national security interests. Congress must pass a bipartisan Border Security Agreement — the toughest and fairest reforms in decades — to ensure we have the policies and funding needed to secure the border. “It's time to get this done.”
The bipartisan border package collapsed last month when Republican senators scuttled months of negotiations with Democrats on legislation aimed at reducing record numbers of illegal border crossings.
To win Republican support for the latest spending package, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) pointed to some increases in secured funding for about 8,000 additional detention beds for immigrants awaiting immigration proceedings or removal from the country. This represents an increase of 24% from current levels. GOP leadership also highlighted more money to hire about 2,000 Border Patrol agents.
Meanwhile, Democrats are touting a $1 billion increase for Head Start programs and new child care centers for military families. They also focused on a $120 million increase in funding for cancer research and a $100 million increase for Alzheimer's disease research.
The spending package largely tracks the agreement that then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield reached with the White House in May 2023, which restricted spending for two years and suspended the debt ceiling until January 2025 so the federal government could continue paying its bills.
The odds of a short-term government shutdown appeared to be increasing Friday evening after Republicans and Democrats clashed over proposed amendments to the bill. But shortly before midnight, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, about a breakthrough.
“It's good for the country that we reached this bipartisan agreement,” Schumer (D-N.Y.) said. “It wasn't easy, but our determination tonight was worth it.”
The House of Representatives passed the legislation Friday morning by a vote of 286 to 134, narrowly obtaining the two-thirds majority needed for speedy approval.
The vote in the House of Representatives reflects anger among Republicans over the content of the package and the speed with which it was voted on. Johnson introduced the measure even though a majority of Republicans ended up voting against it. He then said the bill “represents the best outcome that can be achieved in a divided government.”
In a sign of intransigence on the party's right side, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) launched an effort to remove Johnson as Speaker of the House when the House began voting, but he held off on taking further action until lawmakers returned in two weeks. . It's the same tool that was used last year to remove McCarthy.
The breakdown of votes showed that 101 Republicans voted for the bill and 112 voted against it. Meanwhile, 185 Democrats voted in favor of the bill and 22 against.
Associated Press writers Long reported from Wilmington and Freking and Jalonick reported from Washington. AP writers Lisa Mascaro, Farnoush Amiri and Chris Megerian in Washington contributed to this report.
