US Senate approves $460 billion funding package, avoiding shutdown

By Erik Wasson

The US Senate approved a $460 billion funding package, sending it to President Joe Biden in time to sign before a looming Saturday partial government shutdown. 

The measure sets spending levels through September for about a quarter of federal agency funding, with the remaining parts of the government facing a March 23 deadline.

Ideological fights over government spending have dragged on since the Oct. 1 start of the federal fiscal year, delaying funding decisions and generating five threatened shutdowns, each of which has been averted shortly before the deadline. Financial markets have shrugged off the drama, assuming compromise would eventually prevail.

The Senate voted 75 to 22 on Friday evening to approve the package, negotiated by congressional leaders from both parties. The House overwhelmingly passed it earlier this week.

“To folks who worry that divided government means nothing ever gets done, this bipartisan package says otherwise,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said. “It helps parents and veterans and firefighters and farmers and school cafeterias and more.”

Conservatives said they expected few victories in the next round of negotiations — which includes money for the Defense and Homeland Security departments — because House Speaker Mike Johnson has made clear he won’t risk a shutdown to leverage cuts or policy changes. They were especially irate that many Republicans, including Johnson, had secured pet project earmarks in the bill. 

Included in the bill approved on Friday are funds for the departments of Agriculture, Interior, Commerce, Justice, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, Energy, Veterans Affairs as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, Food and Drug Administration and NASA. Republicans won a small cut to domestic funding outside of veterans health care, but far less than the 22 per cent they had hoped for.

Democrats beat back demands for hundreds of conservative policy changes, ranging from banning abortion drugs to cutting off funds for investigations into Donald Trump. Republicans were able to make it easier for veterans deemed mentally incompetent to buy guns, a provision that provoked some Democrats to vote against the measure.