U.S. President Joe Biden signed a $1.2 trillion spending package on Saturday, keeping the government covered for a fiscal year that started six months ago.
President Joe Biden Approves Trillion-Dollar Budget while Urging Congress for More Legislation
The White House made the move official Saturday morning, almost halfway through the fiscal year, the president's approval puts an end to a month-long narrative of Congress fighting to secure a lasting budget resolution and rather passing short-term measures enough to prevent government shutdowns.
The American president emphasized that the package, which Congress overwhelmingly put into force in the early hours of Saturday, was an investment in Americans as well as in the economy and national security. The president also urged the passing of other bills that remained stuck in the legislative chambers.
"The House must pass the bipartisan national security supplemental to advance our national security interests," President Biden said in a statement. "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."
The Senate passed the bill with a 74-24 vote. This will allow major federal agencies, including the departments of Homeland Security, Justice, State, and Treasury, which cover the Internal Revenue Service, to remain fully funded until September 30.
However, the measure did not comprise support for mostly military aid to Israel, Ukraine, or Taiwan, which are included in a separate Senate-passed bill that the Republican-led House of Representatives has disregarded.
The passage of the bill was welcomed by the business community, which is committed to continuing to collaborate with policymakers in order to advance legislation that would improve tax breaks for companies and poverty-stricken households.
"A fully operational U.S. government provides important stability for American businesses, workers, and families," Business Roundtable CEO Joshua Bolten highlighted in a statement. "We look forward to continuing to work with Members of Congress to advance sound policies, including the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act."
In addition, the trillion-dollar check with six appropriation bills will also fund defence agencies, homeland security, financial services, health and human services, and many more.
For the first six appropriations, the Congress approved $459 billion earlier in March, which related to organizations that were less hostile and easier to negotiate.
Budget Approval Sparks Intraparty Tensions
With the government finally well funded for the remaining fiscal year, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has got one looming issue cleared out of his plate. However, doing so may have resulted in creating another.
In fact, radical Conservative Marjorie Taylor Greene threatened to hold a vote to have Speaker Mike Johnson removed for allowing the bill to pass.
Johnson, as he has previously done over sixty times since getting ahead of his expelled predecessor Kevin McCarthy in October, used a parliamentary manoeuvre on Friday to avoid radicals within the party he represents, allowing the measure to pass by a vote of 286–134 with significantly more support from Democrats than Republicans.
For the majority of the previous six months, the government has been supported by four temporary stopgap regulations indicative of recurrent negotiations that rating agencies have cautioned may harm the credibility of a federal government that is roughly $34.6 trillion in debt.
"This legislation is truly a national security bill—70% of the funding in this package is for our national defence, including investments that strengthen our military readiness and industrial base, provide pay and benefit increases for our brave service members, and support our closest allies," stated Republican Senator Susan Collins, one of the most prominent negotiators.
The opposition casts the bill as overly expensive. "It's reckless. It leads to inflation. It's a direct vote to steal your paycheck," said Senator Rand Paul, part of a band of Republicans who generally stand against most spending bills.