(Headline USA) Joe Biden signed a $1.2 trillion package of spending bills after Congress passed the legislation in the dark of the night.
It took lawmakers six months to pass the funding bill. The process was slowed by conservatives who pushed for responsible spending.
The White House said Biden signed the legislation at his home in Wilmington, Delaware.
The bill had cleared the Senate by a 74-24 vote shortly after funding had expired for the agencies at midnight.
The first package of full-year spending bills, which funded the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture and the Interior, among others, cleared Congress two weeks ago with just hours to spare before funding expired for those agencies. The second covered the departments of Defense, Homeland Security and State, as well as other aspects of general government.
When combining the two packages, discretionary spending for the budget year will come to about $1.66 trillion. That does not include programs such as Social Security and Medicare, or financing the country’s surging debt.
On Ukraine aid, the package provided $300 million under the defense spending umbrella.
The spending package largely tracks with an agreement that then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California worked out with the White House in May 2023, which restricted spending for two years and suspended the debt ceiling into January 2025.
The vote breakdown showed 101 Republicans voting for the bill and 112 voting against it. Meanwhile, 185 Democrats voted for the bill and 22 against.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
