Biden signs $1.2 trillion funding package after Senate’s early-morning passage ended shutdown threat

WILMINGTON, Del.– President Joe Biden signed a $1.2 trillion package of spending bills on Saturday after Congress passed long-awaited legislation just hours earlier, ending the threat of a partial government shutdown.

“This agreement represents a compromise, meaning neither side got everything they wanted,” Biden said in a statement. “But it rejects House Republicans’ extreme budget cuts and expands access to child care, invests in cancer research, funds mental health and substance abuse care, advances American leadership abroad and provides resources to secure the border . … That’s good news for the American people.”

It took lawmakers six months in the current budget year to reach the finish line on government funding, with the process slowed by conservatives pushing for more policy mandates and sharper cuts than a Democratic-led Senate or the White House would consider. The impasse required several short-term expenditures to keep the agencies funded.

The White House said Biden signed the legislation at his home in Wilmington, Delaware, where he spent the weekend. It had cleared the Senate on a 74-24 vote shortly after funding for the agencies expired at midnight.

But the White House had sent a message 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 pass the legislation and that the Democratic president would pass it would sign on Saturday.

The first full-year budget package, which funded the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture and the Interior, among others, Congress passed just hours two weeks ago before funding for those agencies expired. The second covered the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, and State, as well as other aspects of general government.

When the two packages are combined, discretionary spending for the budget year will amount to about $1.66 trillion. That doesn’t include programs like Social Security and Medicare, or financing the country’s rising debt burden.

As for aid to Ukraine, which Biden and his administration said was critical and necessary to help stop Russia’s invasion, the package provided $300 million under the umbrella of defense spending. That funding is separate from a major aid package for Ukraine and Israel that is stalled on Capitol Hill.

In his statement, Biden again urged Congress to approve additional aid.

“The House must pass the bipartisan national security supplement to advance our national security interests. And Congress must pass the 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.”

A bipartisan border package collapsed last month when Republican senators broke down months of negotiations with Democrats over legislation aimed at curbing record numbers of illegal border crossings.

To win Republican support, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., pointed to some of the spending increases secured for about 8,000 additional detention beds for migrants awaiting immigration proceedings or removal from the country. That’s an increase of about 24% from current levels. Republican leadership also emphasized that more money was needed to hire about 2,000 Border Patrol agents.

Democrats are boasting of a $1 billion increase for Head Start programs and new child care centers for military families. They also pitched a $120 million increase in funding for cancer research and a $100 million increase for Alzheimer’s disease research.

The spending package is largely consistent with a deal then-California Speaker Kevin McCarthy struck with the White House in May 2023, limiting spending for two years and suspending the debt ceiling until January 2025 so the federal government could continue paying its bills .

The prospects for a short-term government shutdown appeared to grow Friday evening after Republicans and Democrats feuded over proposed amendments to the bill. But shortly before midnight, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DY, announced a breakthrough.

“It is good for the country that we have reached this bipartisan agreement. It wasn’t easy, but tonight our perseverance paid off,” Schumer said.

The House of Representatives passed the legislation Friday morning on a vote of 286-134, narrowly gaining the two-thirds majority needed for passage.

The vote count in the House of Representatives reflected anger among Republicans over the contents of the package and the speed with which it was put to a vote. Johnson brought up the measure even though a majority of Republicans ultimately voted against it. He said afterward that the bill “represents the best achievable outcome in a divided government.”

In a sign of conservative frustration, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., made an effort to impeach Johnson as the House of Representatives began voting, but held off on further action until the House returns in two weeks. It’s the same tool used to remove McCarthy last year.

The vote breakdown showed that 101 Republicans voted in favor of the bill and 112 against. Meanwhile, 185 Democrats voted in favor of the bill and 22 against it.

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Freking and Jalonick reported from Washington. AP Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro and Associated Press writers Farnoush Amiri and Chris Megerian in Washington contributed to this report.