WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Friday signed into legislation a funding invoice to maintain the federal government working by way of Dec. 16, averting a shutdown forward of a midnight deadline.
The Home handed the laws earlier within the day as a closing act of enterprise earlier than each chambers of Congress recess for six weeks till the midterm election.
The Friday vote was 230-201, with 10 Republicans becoming a member of Democrats to move it. The Senate handed the invoice 72-25 on Thursday.
The stopgap measure offers congressional leaders extra time to barter a full-year funding deal, together with a bunch of different priorities they intend to deal with within the lame-duck session. That features a protection authorization invoice and a bundle of modifications to election legal guidelines designed to forestall one other Jan. 6-style try and overturn a presidential election.
The invoice contains $12 billion in help to Ukraine, cash for Afghan refugees, enhanced safety for U.S. courts and a five-year reauthorization of consumer charges for the Meals and Drug Administration.
Home Republican leaders pressured their members to vote towards the laws, indicating a break up between Home Minority Chief Kevin McCarthy and Senate Minority Chief Mitch McConnell, who supported the measure. It’s a signal that must-pass funding measures might get contentious if Republicans seize the Home this fall.
The Senate’s prime two appropriators — Committee Chair Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Richard Shelby, R-Ala. — are retiring on the finish of the yr and need to exit with a bigger funding deal, reasonably than punt the difficulty into the brand new yr.
Regardless that Congress efficiently stored the federal government open, the session ended on a bitter word for some Home Democrats.
Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia excoriated celebration leaders for failing to name a vote on her TRUST in Congress Act, which might ban members of Congress from buying and selling inventory whereas in workplace. The invoice is geared toward boosting transparency and battling doable insider buying and selling by requiring members, in addition to their spouses and dependent youngsters, to place sure property in a blind belief.
“This second marks a failure of Home management — and it’s yet one more instance of why I consider that the Democratic Celebration wants new leaders within the halls of Capitol Hill, as I’ve lengthy made identified,” mentioned Spanberger, who faces a tough re-election bid in November. “Somewhat than convey Members of Congress collectively who’re keen about this problem, management selected to disregard these voices, push them apart, and search for new methods they might string the media and the general public alongside — and evade public criticism.”
Kyle Stewart and Zoë Richards contributed.
