WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden signed into law a funding bill on Friday to keep the government operating through Dec. 16, avoiding a shutdown before the midnight deadline.
The House passed the legislation earlier in the day as the final act before both houses of Congress were suspended for six weeks until midterm elections.
Friday’s vote was 230 to 201, with 10 Republicans joining Democrats in passing it. The Senate passed Bill 72-25 on Thursday.
The stopgap measure gives congressional leaders more time to negotiate a full-year funding deal, as well as a host of other priorities they intend to address during the lame session. This includes a defense authorization bill and a package of election law changes designed to prevent another Jan. 6-style attempt to nullify a presidential election.
Bill includes $12 billion in aid for Ukraine, money for Afghan refugees, enhanced security for US courts and new five-year user fee authorization for Food and Drug Administration.
House Republican leaders have pressured their members to vote against the legislation, indicating a split between House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who supported the measure. It’s a sign that the must-have funding measures could become controversial if Republicans capture the House this fall.
The two top Senate appropriators — committee chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Richard Shelby, R-Ala. — are retiring at the end of the year and want to get out with a bigger funding deal, rather than pushing the issue into the new year.
Even though Congress succeeded in keeping government open, the session ended on a sour note for some House Democrats.
Representative Abigail Spanberger of Virginia criticized party leaders for not calling a vote on her TRUST in Congress Act, which would bar members of Congress from trading stocks while in office. The bill aims to increase transparency and combat insider trading by requiring members, as well as their spouses and dependent children, to place certain assets in a blind trust.
“This moment marks a failure of House leadership – and it’s yet another example of why I believe the Democratic Party needs new leadership in the halls of Capitol Hill, as I’ve been saying for a while. a long time,” said Spanberger, who faces a difficult challenge. electoral candidacy in November. “Rather than uniting members of Congress who are passionate about this issue, leaders have chosen to ignore those voices, push them aside, and seek new ways to move the media and the public forward — and escape public criticism. .”
Kyle Stewart and Zoe Richards contributed.
