Senate passes $460 billion bill to avoid partial shutdown, sends it to Biden
The Senate on Friday gave final approval to a $460 billion spending bill to fund about half of the federal government through the fall, sending the legislation to President Biden’s desk with just hours to go. to prevent partial closure.
The lopsided 75-22 vote affirmed a resolution that resolved at least part of a spending stalemate that has consumed Congress for months and repeatedly pushed the government to the brink of shutdown. Biden was expected to sign it before the midnight deadline to keep federal funding flowing.
But key lawmakers during the same period were still negotiating spending bills for the other half of the government, including for the Pentagon, which Congress must approve by March 22 to avoid a shutdown. Several thorny issues, including funding for the Department of Homeland Security, remain to be resolved.
The legislation passed Friday includes six spending bills, extending funding through September 30 for dozens of federal programs in agriculture, energy and environment, transportation, housing, the Justice Department and veterans.
“For people who worry that divided government means nothing ever gets done, this bipartisan package says otherwise,” said Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and majority leader. “It helps parents and veterans and firefighters and farmers and school cafeterias and more.”
The package adheres to funding levels negotiated last year by Mr. Biden and then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, keeping spending on domestic programs essentially stable — even as funding for veterans programs continues to grow — while military spending may increase. slightly.
Democrats rejected the most divisive Republican policy demands, including an effort to gut a new Food and Drug Administration rule that would allow mifepristone — the first pill used in a two-drug abortion regimen — through the mail and in stores can be distributed. and efforts to reduce and limit nutritional benefits for low-income families.
“Today we did the first half of the job: we passed a serious bipartisan package to fund key parts of our government,” said Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington and chairman of the Appropriations Committee. “This is not the bill I would have written on my own, but this is a powerful, bipartisan package that supports vital resources that matter in people’s lives.”
House Republicans scored some smaller victories, including modest cuts to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the FBI and environmental programs, although some cuts were much smaller than they appeared. And they won inclusion of a measure that would curtail a policy instituted by the Veterans Affairs Department that aims to prevent suicides among veterans by creating a federal gun background check when veterans are found to lack the mental capacity to manage their own finances.
One Democrat ultimately opposed the spending legislation because of its inclusion.
“I’m voting no because I will not accept a return to a time when the gun lobby could bury gun riders in appropriations bills (which often happened before Sandy Hook),” Senator Christopher S. Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, said in a speech. rack. “This cannot happen again.”