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WASHINGTON, Dec. 22 (AP) — The Senate passed a massive $1.7 trillion spending bill on Thursday to fund federal agencies through September and in a speech by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (AP) Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered another massive round of aid to Ukraine a day after his dramatic speech to a joint session of Congress.
The 4,155-page bill includes about $772.5 billion for domestic programs and $858 billion for defense and will fund federal agencies through the fiscal year ending September.
The bill, which passed by a 68-29 vote, will now go to the House of Representatives for a final vote before it goes to President Joe Biden to be signed into law.
“This is one of the most significant grant programs we’ve done in a long time,” Schumer said. “It’s helping people broadly and deeply,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said moments before the vote.
Lawmakers were scrambling to get the bill approved before a partial government shutdown at midnight on Friday, with many rushing to get the job done before freezing and frigid weather left them stranded in Washington for vacation.
Many also want to lock in government funding ahead of a new Republican-controlled House of Representatives next year, which could make it harder to reach a compromise on spending.
On Wednesday night, senators heard from Zelensky about the importance of U.S. aid to his country in Russia’s war effort.
The measure provided about $45 billion in military, economic and humanitarian assistance to the affected countries and NATO allies, even more than Biden requested, and the total aid so far has exceeded $100 billion.
“Your money is not charity,” Zelensky told lawmakers and Americans watching from home. “This is an investment in global security and democracy that we have handled most responsibly.”
Lawmakers were divided on which amendments to vote on to lock in a final vote. The impasse threatens to prevent passage of the bill before a midnight Friday deadline.
But negotiations broke through overnight, with senators coming together Thursday morning to pass more than a dozen amendments before a final vote.
The spending bill has the support of Schumer and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, though for different reasons.
McConnell referred to the bill’s 10 percent increase in defense spending, which he said would provide the U.S. Armed Forces with the funding and certainty they need to ensure national security.
“The greatest military in the world will get the funding it needs to grow, above inflation. At the same time, non-defense, non-veteran spending will be below inflation to reduce real dollars,” McConnell said. “
McConnell faces opposition from many Republicans who do not support the spending bill and resent being forced to vote on such a massive package so shortly before a possible shutdown and the Christmas holiday.
“There isn’t enough time for one person to read the entire bill. The bill and process ignore soaring inflation, rising interest rates and our ballooning $31 trillion debt,” said Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. “enough.
For both senators, the bill capped their work in Washington. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), retired after approximately 48 years in the Senate, is currently Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
He negotiated the bill for months with Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the committee’s ranking Republican, who was elected to the Senate in 1986 and is also retiring.
“What an illustrious career pinnacle,” Schumer said.
The bill also includes about $40 billion in U.S. emergency spending, primarily to help communities across the country recover from droughts, hurricanes and other natural disasters.
And, of course, it includes many non-spending-related policy changes that lawmakers are trying to include in what will be the last major bill in Congress, or they will start from scratch next year in a divided Congress that Republicans will return to majority of the House of Representatives.
One of the most notable examples is the historic revision of federal election laws designed to prevent any future president or presidential candidate from attempting to overturn the election.
The bipartisan sweeping overhaul of the Election Counting Act is a direct response to former President Donald Trump’s efforts to persuade Republican lawmakers and then-Vice President Mike Pence to oppose certifying Biden’s victory on Jan. 6, 2021. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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