Biden signs $1.2 trillion spending package for government funding until October

President
Joe
Biden
on
Saturday
signed

Congress‘
$1.2
trillion
spending
package,
finalizing
the
remaining
batch
of
bills
in
a
long-awaited
budget
to
keep
the
government
funded
until
Oct.
1.

Almost
halfway
into
the
fiscal
year,
the
president’s
signature
ends
a
months-long
saga
of

Congress
struggling
to
secure
a
permanent
budget
resolution
and
instead
passing
stopgap
measures,
nearly
averting
government
shutdowns.

“The
bipartisan
funding
bill
I
just
signed
keeps
the
government
open,
invests
in
the
American
people,
and
strengthens
our
economy
and
national
security,”
Biden
said
in
a
Saturday
statement.
“This
agreement
represents
a
compromise,
which
means
neither
side
got
everything
it
wanted.”

The
weekend
budget
deal
slid
in
just
under
the
wire
before
the
Friday
midnight
funding
deadline,
as
has
been
typical
this
fiscal
year
with
eleventh-hour
disagreements
derailing
near-complete
deals.

The
Senate
passed
the
budget
in
a
74-24
vote
at
roughly
2
a.m.
ET
Saturday
morning,
technically
two
hours
after
the
deadline
due
to
last-minute
disagreements.
However,
the
White
House
said
that
it
would
not
begin
official
shutdown
operations
since
a
deal
had
ultimately
been
secured
and
only
procedural
actions
remained.

The
House
passed
its
own
vote
Friday
morning
after
a
week
of
scrambling
to
reconcile
a
lingering
sticking
point:
funding
for
the
Department
of
Homeland
Security,
which
the
White
House
took
issue
with
last
weekend.
The
White
House’s
qualms
delayed
the
negotiation
process
further,
just
as
lawmakers
were
preparing
to
release
the
legislative
text
of
the
budget
proposal.

This
trillion-dollar
tranche
of
six
appropriation
bills
will
fund
agencies
related
to
defense,
financial
services,
homeland
security,
health
and
human
services
and
more.
Congress
approved
$459
billion
for
the
first
six
appropriations
bills
earlier
in
March,
which
related
to
agencies
that
were
less
partisan
and
easier
to
negotiate.

With
the
government
finally
funded
for
the
rest
of
the
fiscal
year,
House
Speaker
Mike
Johnson,
R-La.,
has
cleared
his
plate
of
at
least
one
looming
issue.

But
in
so
doing,
he
may
have
created
another.

Hours
before
the
House
passed
the
spending
package
Friday
morning,
hardline
House
Republicans
held
a
press
conference
to
lambast
the
bill.
Moments
after
the
House
narrowly
passed
the
bill,
far-right
Georgia
Republican
Rep.
Marjorie
Taylor
Greene
filed
a
motion
to
oust
Johnson.

If
ousting
a
House
speaker
for
budget
disagreements
feels
like
a
familiar
story,
that’s
because
it
is.

In
October,
after
former
Speaker
Kevin
McCarthy
struck
a
deal
with
Democrats
to
avert
a
government
shutdown,
the
House
voted
to
remove
him,
making
him
the
first
Speaker
in
history
to
be
removed
from
that
position.
Johnson
has
been
trying
to
appease
the
hardline
Republican
wing
of
the
House,
called
the
Freedom
Caucus,
to
avoid
meeting
a
similar
fate.