WASHINGTON, D.C., Dec. 22, 2022 (UPI) — The Senate passed a $1.7 trillion government spending bill on Thursday after Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced on the floor that an agreement had been reached to break a stalemate.
The Senate voted 68-29 to send the legislation to the House. As the lawmakers scramble to avoid a partial government shutdown before the holidays, Schumer had urged senators not too stray far from the chamber to speed up the process.
“It’s taken a while but it is worth it,” he said, according to CBS News. “We know the storm is coming, we want to have people both get the bill done but then be able to go home once we have done our work.”
The bill was snagged Wednesday on an amendment put forth by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, that tied funding for Homeland Security to maintaining Title 42, a controversial border policy instituted by the Trump administration that expels migrants and asylum seeker at the southern border into Mexico in an effort to stymie the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Thursday, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., introduced an amendment to increase border funding and resources for border communities and extend the Title 42 health policy, breaking the stalemate.
The 4,100 page spending plan includes $772.5 billion for domestic priorities, and $858 billion for defense. The bill also includes roughly $40 billion in disaster relief for communities recovering from hurricanes, wildfires, drought and other natural disasters; reforms to the Electoral Count Act; and bans TikTok on federal agencies’ devices, among a slew of other projects for lawmakers.
“The defense spending is outrageous — much too high,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, according to the New York Times. “But at the end of the day, I don’t want to see the government shut down, and there are some very important provisions in it.”
It also provides an additional $45 billion in emergency assistance for Ukraine, one day after Ukrainian President addressed a joint meeting of Congress at the U.S. Capitol.
Schumer said that when he met with the Ukrainian president, he “made clear that without this aid package, the Ukrainians will be in trouble and could even lose the war.”
