The United States Senate has passed the spending bill sent over by the House, which passed in the lower chamber on Wednesday with Democrat votes. As we previously wrote, the package carries a $460 billion price tag
via the Hill:
The Senate voted 75-22 to pass the six-bill, $460 billion package on Friday evening, approving full-year funding for the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Interior, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, Justice, Commerce and Energy, among other offices.
The Senate’s approval caps off weeks of tough bipartisan, bicameral funding talks, which began to pick up at the start of the year, only after a months-long stalemate over how to fund the government for fiscal 2024.
The legislation now heads to the White House for President Joe Biden’s expected signature. But as my colleague Streiff wrote on Feb. 29, when the House, then the Senate, agreed to go forward with the stopgap plan, this is just part one of the process:
House and Senate negotiators have agreed on the Agriculture-FDA, Energy-Water, Military Construction-VA, Transportation-HUD, Interior-Environment, and Commerce-Justice-Science bills. These bills will receive a vote on March 8. The rest of the government, including the more contentious Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, will receive a vote on March 22.
This is a developing story. So, of course, we’ll keep you posted on how part two goes.
