Biden signs $1.2 trillion spending package after Senate’s 2am vote

A partial government shutdown was averted on Saturday when President Joe Biden signed a $1.2 trillion federal spending package, just hours after Congress passed the long overdue legislation.

“This agreement represents a compromise, which means neither side got everything it wanted,” the president said, in a statement. “But it rejects extreme cuts from House Republicans and expands access to child care, invests in cancer research, funds mental health and substance use care, advances American leadership abroad, and provides resources to secure the border that my Administration successfully fought to include. That’s good news for the American people.”

The White House said that Biden signed the legislation at his home in Wilmington, Delaware, where he is spending the weekend.

It took lawmakers six months of the current budget year to get near the finish line on government funding. The process has been slowed by conservatives who have pushed for more policy mandates and steeper cuts than a Democratic-led Senate or White House would consider. The impasse required several short-term spending bills to keep agencies funded.

A two-thirds majority was reached in the House of Representatives on Friday to pass the spending package – 286 voted in favour and 134 voted against — leaving the right wing of the Republican Party furious.

“This is a betrayal of Republican voters,” Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene told reporters after the vote. “The bill… forced Republicans to choose between funding to pay our soldiers and in doing so, funding late-term abortion – this bill was basically a dream and a wish list for Democrats and for the White House.”

Ms Greene then filed a motion to stage a no-confidence vote in House Speaker Mike Johnson.

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