KINGSHILL, U.S. Virgin Islands (AP) — President Joe Biden signed a $1.7 trillion spending bill Thursday that will keep the federal government running through the end of the federal budget year in September 2023 and provide tens of billions of dollars worth of new aid to Ukraine to fight the Russian military.
Biden had until Friday night to sign the bill into law to avoid a partial government shutdown.
The Democratic-controlled House passed the bill 225-201, largely along party lines, just before Christmas. The House vote came a day after the Senate, also led by Democrats, voted 68-29 to pass the bill with much more Republican support.
Biden said the passage is proof that Republicans and Democrats can work together.
Representative. Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader of the House who hopes to be speaker when Congress opens a new session on Jan. 3, argued during debate that the bill spends too much and does too little to curb illegal immigration and the flow of fentanyl to the United States. States of Mexico.
“This is an abomination that is one of the most shameful acts I have ever seen in this body,” McCarthy said of the legislation.
McCarthy is appealing to the support of staunch conservatives in the GOP caucus, who have widely criticized the bill for its size and scope. Republicans will have a slim majority in the House on Jan. 3, and several conservative members have vowed not to vote for McCarthy for president.
The funding bill includes a roughly 6 percent increase in spending for national initiatives to $772.5 billion. Spending on defense programs will increase by about 10 percent to $858 billion.
The change came just hours before a funding deadline for federal agencies. Lawmakers approved two short-term spending measures to keep the government running, and a third to fund the government until Dec. 30 was approved on Friday. Biden signed it to ensure services would continue until Congress sends him the full-year measure, called an omnibus bill.
The massive bill, which has grown to more than 4,000 pages, includes 12 appropriations, aid to Ukraine and aid to communities recovering from natural disasters. It also contains dozens of policy changes that lawmakers rushed to include in the final bill considered by that session of Congress.
Lawmakers have offered about $45 billion for Ukraine and NATO allies, more than even Biden requested, acknowledging that future rounds of funding are not guaranteed when Republicans take control of the House next week after the party’s midterm election victories .
While support for Ukraine was largely bipartisan, some House Republicans opposed the spending and argued the money would be better spent on priorities in the United States.
McCarthy warned that Republicans will not write a “blank check” for Ukraine in the future.
The bill also includes about $40 billion in emergency spending, primarily to help U.S. communities recover from droughts, hurricanes and other natural disasters.
via the Associated Press
Biden signed the bill Thursday in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where he is spending time with his wife Jill and other family members on the island of St. Croce. The Bidens are staying at the home of friends Bill and Connie Neville, the White House said. Bill Neville owns US Viking, maker of ENPS, a news production software system sold by The Associated Press.
Also in the bill are dozens of policy changes largely unrelated to spending, but lawmakers worked furiously behind the scenes to add the bill, which was the last piece of legislation to appear that session of Congress . Otherwise, the lawmakers sponsoring the changes would have to make a fresh start next year in a politically divided Congress, where Republicans will return to the House majority and Democrats will continue to control the Senate.
One of the more notable examples was a major overhaul of federal election law to prevent a future president or presidential candidate from trying to overturn an election.
The bipartisan overhaul of the Voter Count Act is a direct response to then-President Donald Trump’s efforts to get Republican lawmakers and then-Vice President Mike Pence to oppose certifying Biden’s victory on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump Day, on Capitol Hill.
Among the spending increases Democrats highlighted: a $500 increase in the maximum amount of Pell grants for low-income students, a $100 million increase in block grants to states for substance abuse prevention and treatment programs, a 22 percent increase in spending on veterans. healthcare and $3.7 billion in emergency relief for farmers and ranchers affected by natural disasters.
The bill also provides about $15.3 billion for more than 7,200 projects that lawmakers sought for their home states and districts. Under the renewed rules for funding Community projects, also known as earmarks, MPs must post their applications online and certify that they have no financial interest in the projects. However, many fiscal conservatives criticize the allocation as leading to unnecessary spending.
Associated Press writer Kevin Freking in Washington contributed to this report.
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