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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowPresident Joe Biden on Thursday signed a $1.7 trillion spending bill that will keep the federal government operating through the end of the federal budget year in September 2023, and provide tens of billions of dollars in new aid to Ukraine for its fight against the Russian military.
Biden signed the more than 4,000-page bill on Thursday in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where he is spending time with family.
Biden had until late Friday to sign the bill to avoid a partial government shutdown.
The Democratic-controlled House passed the bill 225-201, mostly along party lines, just before Christmas. The House vote came a day after the Senate, also led by Democrats, voted 68-29 to pass the bill with significantly more Republican support.
Biden had said passage was proof that Republicans and Democrats can work together.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican leader who hopes to become speaker when a new session Congress opens on Jan. 3, argued during floor debate that the bill spends too much and does too little to curb illegal immigration and the flow of fentanyl into the U.S. from Mexico.
“This is a monstrosity that is one of the most shameful acts I’ve ever seen in this body,” McCarthy said of the legislation.
McCarthy is appealing for support from staunch conservatives in the GOP caucus, who have largely blasted the bill for its size and scope. Republicans will have a narrow House majority come Jan. 3 and several conservative members have vowed not to vote for McCarthy to become speaker.
The funding bill includes a roughly 6% increase in spending for domestic initiatives, to $772.5 billion. Spending on defense programs will increase by about 10%, to $858 billion.
Passage was achieved hours before financing for federal agencies was set to expire. Lawmakers had approved two short-term spending measures to keep the government operating, and a third, funding the government through Dec. 30, passed last Friday. Biden signed it to ensure services would continue until Congress sent him the full-year measure, called an omnibus bill.
The massive bill, which topped out at more than 4,000 pages, wraps together 12 appropriations bills, aid to Ukraine and disaster relief for communities recovering from natural disasters. It also contains scores of policy changes that lawmakers worked to include in the final major bill considered by that session of Congress.
Lawmakers provided roughly $45 billion for Ukraine and NATO allies, more than even Biden had requested, an acknowledgment that future rounds of funding are not guaranteed when Republicans take control of the House next week following the party’s gains in the midterm elections.
Though support for Ukraine aid has largely been bipartisan, some House Republicans have opposed the spending and argued that the money would be better spent on priorities in the United States.
McCarthy has warned that Republicans will not write a “blank check” for Ukraine in the future.
The bill also includes about $40 billion in emergency spending, mostly to help communities across the U.S. as they recover from drought, hurricanes and other natural disasters.
The White House said it received the bill from Congress late Wednesday afternoon. It was delivered to Biden for his signature by White House staff on a regularly scheduled commercial flight.
Biden signed the bill Thursday in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where he is spending time with his wife, Jill, and other family members on the island of St. Croix. The Bidens are staying at the home of friends Bill and Connie Neville, the White House said. Bill Neville owns US Viking, maker of ENPS, a news production software system that is sold by The Associated Press.
Also in the bill are scores of policy changes that are largely unrelated to spending, but lawmakers worked furiously behind the scenes to get the added to the bill, which was the final piece of legislation that came out of that session of Congress. Otherwise, lawmakers sponsoring these changes would have had to start from scratch next year in a politically divided Congress in which Republicans will return to the majority in the House and Democrats will continue to control the Senate.
One of the most notable examples was a historic revision to federal election law to prevent a future president or presidential candidate from trying to overturn an election.
The bipartisan overhaul of the Electoral Count Act is a direct response to-then President Donald Trump’s efforts to persuade Republican lawmakers and then-Vice President Mike Pence to object to the certification of Biden’s victory on Jan. 6, 2021, the day of the Trump-inspired insurrection at the Capitol.
Among the spending increases Democrats emphasized: a $500 increase in the maximum size of Pell grants for low-income college students, a $100 million increase in block grants to states for substance abuse prevention and treatment programs, a 22% increase in spending on veterans’ medical care and $3.7 billion in emergency relief to farmers and ranchers hit by natural disasters.
The bill also provides roughly $15.3 billion for more than 7,200 projects that lawmakers sought for their home states and districts. Under revamped rules for community project funding, also referred to as earmarks, lawmakers must post their requests online and attest they have no financial interest in the projects. Still, many fiscal conservatives criticize the earmarking as leading to unnecessary spending.
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This bill is a sad day for Americans. We have countless and endless numbers of people with severe needs in the USA and we are spending billions and billions of US tax dollars on foreign issues. I do not know what has happened to our America. The America I grew up in no longer exists. America is being ran by powers and forces that no longer have America’s best interests at heart.
Vincent, are you one of those tired of people from other countries coming to America, risking their lives to get here because the situation in their home countries is so awful?
Either we spend the money here on people once they’re here or we spend it in their countries so they are such bad places that people flee. We are going to spend it either way. The concept we will just build a wall and all our problems will never come here is laughable.
Also, the investment in the Ukraine is maybe the best one America has ever made. We’ve spent $85 billion and destroyed a large chunk of Russia’s military might … and most all of their reputation without the direct involvement of any of our armed forces. Meanwhile, they’re celebrating in Russia by throwing oligarchs who aren’t sufficiently loyal out of windows like crazy. It didn’t rain this many men in the song ”It’s raining men”. Russia is finished, they’ve taken themselves back to irrelevancy.
And that’s leaving out the motivation for the EU to act like a union, and pay more for their defense that the conflict has caused. Meanwhile, tell me that Xi isn’t re-evaluating his plans for Taiwan … worried that he’s also get stuck in an intractable conflict.
And, a reminder, Republicans only care about the deficit or spending when there is a Democratic President. When they are in charge, they explode the deficit via tax cuts that don’t do anything for the economy save make the wealthy elite (those elites they claim they hate so much!) that much richer.
^^ we spend it in their countries so they are not such bad places that people flee
So Joe B: I never discussed immigration as my comments were directed towards the bill giving billions of dollars away to foreign countries. So you have no idea what my opinion is on immigration and/or about those who are trying to get to America “because their lives are at risk”. I am married to an immigrant, who came here 6+ years ago to seek asylum. She went through Hell in her home country and she/we have spent the last 6+ years trying to get her US Citizenship the “right way”. But guess what, she still does not have it yet because of those who have chosen to flood the system illegally and to those who have allowed the system to be flooded illegally. So don’t tell me I have no empathy as you know NOTHING about me!
But tell me Joe B: Why do you not have more compassion for those who have chosen to do this legally instead of those who have chosen to do it illegally?! What about them? Have you never thought that your grandiose views on helping the illegal immigrants does not create an unfair advantage over those doing the process legally?! Does it not fit your liberal narrative?! Where is your compassion there? What kind of message does that send. And finally, both sides of my grandparents were immigrants that came to America around WW2 so I have plenty of awareness…thank you!
Back to my comments: my “actual” comments were strictly about foreign policy. Do you give away money to other families to the point of near personal bankruptcy in order to improve those families with the “off-chance” that some of that investment will return back to you and your family, thus enhancing your life?!
As a country, our #1 obligation is to our own country and to our citizens first. The more we are able to help ourselves then allows us the potential to help others. Like the rule on a plane, put the mask over your face and then put the mask on your children. Save yourself first then that gives you opportunity to save others. There is a reason that rule exists.
We have people really hurting financially (and maybe you are not and do not care about your own neighbors) and we most certainly do not need to give $85B to Ukraine (well-known to be one of the most corrupt governments in the world for decades) and we certainly do not want to give money to six (6) other foreign countries to help them secure their borders when ours is an absolute mess. This, too, is in this bill. If you think that is being fiscally responsible to its citizens, then we are polar opposites.
The government has forgotten who works for who! They work for us but unfortunately they think we work for them. But the simple truth is, the government does not generate its own revenue. They are sponges as 100% comes from US citizens through taxes…thus giving the citizens a justified right to object when it is being so irresponsibly handled. If you want to write a check to Ukraine, go for it. Not me as I prefer to donate to those in need from our own country…my neighbors…my State, etc..
As far as Russia is concerned, IF it did weaken Russia, as you say, that only made them more dangerous. Russia will just align with China, Iran or other countries that hate America and then our problems are much more expensive and much more treacherous and the risk to the entire world is much more probable. You cannot poke a bear, especially one with Putin’s ego.
Vincent – I don’t understand the artificial scarcity when it comes to immigration. If someone is fleeing hell in their home country, I don’t much care if they get here the right way or the wrong way. But I’m kind of a pro-life nut like that.
As far as spending money, we have also created artificial scarcity. We do not have to make a choice between effective spending at home and foreign policy spending… all while having a balanced budget. It’s simple, collect more in taxes. The will just isn’t there.
Russia more dangerous? They’re now vassals to China and can’t lash out without losing China’s support. Appeasing Putin like his comrades in the Republican Party wanted to do would have been foolish. The largest danger Russia offers to the world order is innocent civilians being hit by falling oligarchs.
Todd Young owes the taxpayers of Indiana an answer to why he voted for this garbage. Kudos to Mike Braun for voting “no” to this fiscal disaster.