President Biden on Friday signed a short-term bill to keep the government open while the $1.7 trillion Congress-passed government funding package readies for his signature.
The short-term continuing resolution Congress sent to Biden’s desk kicks the funding deadline from Friday at midnight to Dec. 30. It is intended to avoid a government shutdown while the more than 4,000-page funding bill is going through what is called the enrollment process.
The Senate, when it passed the funding bill on Thursday, approved a measure by unanimous consent to move the deadline to fund the government another week. The House approved the measure on Friday.
Biden is expected to sign the funding bill once it is brought to his desk, which will likely happen in the next few days. The bill funds the government for the remainder of fiscal 2023 and will cap off a year of several bipartisan legislative accomplishments for the president.
It includes $45 billion in military and economic aid for Ukraine, $38 billion for emergency disaster assistance, and reforms to the Electoral Count Act clarifying that the vice president does not have the power to overturn the results of a presidential election.
It passed the Senate with a large bipartisan majority, 68-29, and passed the House largely along party lines, 225-201-1.
The Senate on Thursday also added eight amendments to the package, including a provision to give some groups of terrorism victims, like the families of Sept. 11, 2001, victims, access to a compensation fund.
Source: The Hill
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