WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): The Senate early Saturday, December 21 morning passed a bill to avert a government shutdown, sending the measure to President Joe Biden to be signed into law.
The bill, which passed by an 85-11 vote, extends federal funds to mid-March, sends more than $100 billion in relief to farmers and natural disaster victims, and reauthorizes the sweeping agriculture policy and anti-poverty law called the farm bill. It was the final vote of the 118th Congress of the United States.
It comes after a week of chaos in the House that materialized into a last-gasp compromise on Friday afternoon. House Republicans abandoned a bipartisan deal earlier in the week only to arrive at another, substantially similar bill after rejecting demands from President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk, his billionaire adviser. Trump ordered Republicans to suspend the nation’s borrowing limit to set up an easier path for the GOP to pass a new tax cut law in 2025. The GOP tried to include that measure in a Thursday night bill, but it was refused by a combination of Democrats and conservative hard-liners.