CNN
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The council on Friday voted a A massive $1.7 trillion spending bill It will fund critical government operations across federal agencies and provide emergency assistance for Ukraine and natural disaster relief. The bill will go next to President Joe Biden to be signed into law.
Government funding currently expires on Friday evening — and lawmakers were racing the clock to act before the deadline. The Passed by the Senate Thursday’s legislation extended the deadline by one week to Dec. 30, giving Biden enough time for the bill to be formally implemented throughout the year and sent to Biden. The House approved a one-week extension and Biden signed it into law on Friday, ensuring a shutdown would not occur.
The massive spending bill for fiscal year 2023, known on Capitol Hill as an omnibus, provides $772.5 billion for non-defense, domestic programs and $858 billion in defense funding. This includes about $45 billion in emergency aid to Ukraine and NATO allies and about $40 billion to respond to natural disasters such as hurricanes, wildfires and floods.
Other key provisions in the bill include an overhaul of the Election Counting Act of 1887, which was intended to make it harder to defeat certified presidential elections — the first legislative response to the U.S. Capitol rebellion and then-President Donald Trump’s relentless pressure campaign. His 2020 failure.
Among other provisions, the spending bill includes the Secure Act 2.0, a package aimed at making it easier to save for retirement, and a move to ban TikTok from government devices.
The legislative text of the package, which runs to more than 4,000 pages, was released at midnight — 1:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday — leaving little time for rank-and-file lawmakers and the public to review. Its contents before coming to a vote in both Houses.
House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy criticized the $1.7 trillion spending bill in a speech ahead of the House vote.
“It is a monstrosity. “This is one of the most shameful acts I have ever seen in this body,” said the California Republican. “The appropriations process has failed the American public, and there is no greater example of this bill’s hammering of the biggest failure of one-party rule in the House, Senate and President.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi later spoke in support of the spending bill, while noting that the moment “will be my last speech on this floor as Speaker of the House, and I hope to make it my shortest.”
The California Democrat took issue with McCarthy’s comments, saying he was “saddened to hear the Minority Leader previously say this legislation is the most shameful thing to see on the House floor this Congress.”
“I can’t help but wonder if he forgot January 6?” He asked in reference to the attack on the US capital on January 6, 2021.
A massive government funding bill has stalled in the Senate, days after a GOP amendment to Title 42, a Trump-era immigration policy, that could sink the $1.7 trillion bill in the Democratic-controlled House.
Utah’s GOP Sen. Mike Lee insisted on holding a vote on his amendment to uphold an immigration policy that would have allowed immigrants to be turned away at the border, which Republicans strongly support. Because Lee’s measure was expected to be set on a simple majority threshold, many centrist Democrats were worried it would pass and be included in a government funding bill — which was later rejected in the House — as the policy was extended again.
But senators made progress in negotiations Thursday morning.
Sens. Kirsten Sinema of Arizona and Jon Tester of Montana wrote an amendment in an attempt to give moderates an alternative way to vote in favor of Title 42, which the administration and most Democrats want to eliminate.
As expected, both amendments failed to pass. Lee’s amendment to extend Trump-era immigration policy failed 47-50. Cinema-Tester’s Democratic Alternative fell 10-87.
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