Ahead of a looming shutdown, President Joe Biden signed a three-month government funding bill-so that he can avoid a shutdown and defer until later a fuller conversation about government spending after the November elections.
The stopgap spending bill-by known terminology, a continuing resolution or CR-will extend government funding up to December 20.
It also contains the additional $231m for the Secret Service "for operations necessary to carry out protective operations, including the 2024 presidential campaign and national special security events," after the two recent attempts in which a former President Donald Trump was almost assassinated.
Mr Biden signed the bill into law a day after it had been passed by both House and Senate with close-to-wareshiptwo-partisan majorities in both chambers.
"The passage of this bill gives Congress more time to pass full-year funding bills by the end of this year," Biden said on Wednesday.
"My administration will work with Congress to ensure these bills deliver for America's national defence, veterans, seniors, children and working families, and address urgent needs for the American people, including communities recovering from disasters."
The Republican House Speaker, Mike Johnson, had made a first attempt at pushing through a harder-line proposal that would tie a six-month continuing resolution to the Save Act, a highly contentious measure that would require citizens to prove their citizenship when registering to vote.
That effort failed last week, when 14 Republicans and all but two Democrats voted against Johnson's measure. The defeat made it necessary for Johnson to take up a three-month spending bill of such narrow scope that Democrats approved it. The House on Wednesday voted 341 to 82 in favor of that bill, which produced all opposition from Republicans.
"Our legislative work before November has now been officially done, and today the House did the necessary thing," Johnson said on Wednesday. "We took the initiative and passed a clean, narrow, three-month CR to prevent the Senate from jamming us with another bloated bill while continuing resolutions."
Johnson acknowledged that there is usually resistance to the bill in his caucus as 82 Republicans voted against it because of the complaints of wasteful government spending.
"A continuing resolution is never ideal -- none of us like them; that's not the way to run a railroad -- but it allows Congress to continue serving the American people through the election," Johnson said.
This being the case, right after the House passed the continuing resolution on Wednesday noon, the Senate immediately began the process of taking up the bill. The Upper Chamber passed the bill just two hours after the House did this in a bipartisan vote of 78 to 18.
Thanking Johnson for his efforts to avoid a shutdown, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer lamented that it had taken Congress until the very last minute to pass a funding package when it was clear for weeks that a narrow stopgap would be necessary.
Schumer said ahead of the vote that "tonight the American people can rest easier knowing we have avoided an unnecessary government shutdown at the end of the month.".
"It's a relief for the country that, once again, bipartisanship prevailed in the end to prevent another shutdown threat. It took much too long, but because House Republicans finally, finally decided to work with us in the end, Congress is getting the job done tonight."
Schumer had earlier blamed Donald Trump for the delay as the former president had earlier urged Republican lawmakers to veto any bill that would provide government funding without "election security" measures. The newly signed bill did not satisfy that demand, but Johnson insisted that Trump supported the Republican's efforts to fund the government.
"Former President Trump understands the current dilemma and the situation that we're in," Johnson told reporters on Tuesday.
"So we'll continue to coordinate. We're not playing against the President Trump. And I think he understands that."
Both Chambers of Congress are now adjourned until six weeks from now, ensuring no return to Capitol Hill until after election day. His move to depend on Democratic lawmakers in order for the funding package to pass has raised questions about the future of Johnson as Speaker, but on Wednesday, he expressed confidence in his leadership and prospects of his party expanding its narrow majority in the House of Representatives.
"I'd be a fool to project a certain number of seats, but let me just say I'm very optimistic," Johnson told reporters.
"I think we're going to hold the House. And I intend to be the Speaker in the new Congress."
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