US House Passes $1.7 Trillion Spending Bill To Fund Government, Aid Ukraine

US lawmakers adopted a massive yearly spending measure on Friday, including $45 billion in Ukraine aid and election law revisions aimed at preventing a repetition of last year’s Capitol assault.

The Senate’s $1.7 trillion plan was approved by the House of Representatives just hours before a midnight deadline to keep the federal government running – despite the fact that a costly holiday season shutdown was never a significant threat.

“This bill is further proof that Republicans and Democrats can come together to deliver for the American people, and I’m looking forward to continued bipartisan progress in the year ahead,” President Joe Biden said in a statement welcoming the vote.

Failure to deliver the package to Biden’s desk would have been an embarrassment, coming just days after his Ukrainian colleague Volodymyr Zelensky visited the White House to advocate for the $44.9 billion in emergency military and economic help included in the legislation.

But it eventually passed through the lower chamber, where Democrats have a slender majority for a few more days until the Republican-led 118th Congress convenes.

By 225 votes to 201, nine Republicans crossed the aisle to help the package pass, while one Democrat, New York progressive Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, voted nay.

“In this legislation, we proudly deliver another consequential round of security, economic and humanitarian aid,” departing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in what is almost certainly her last speech as the nation’s top lawmaker.

“And it really is not — as the president of Ukraine said the other night — about charity. It’s about security, it’s about working together.”

The massive package keeps the lights on until next October, covering practically every facet of the federal government’s day-to-day operations, from law enforcement to creating money.

It also includes non-funding-related add-ons, such as tightening a 19th-century legislation to clarify that vice presidents do not have the right to reverse elections.

– ‘Season of giving’ –

Defeated president Donald Trump exploited the loose wording of the text to argue that his deputy Mike Pence could halt the transfer of power after the 2020 election, amid bogus claims of voter fraud.

Pence rebuffed Trump’s entreaties and the billionaire Republican’s vilification of his vice president was the cornerstone of his speech that allegedly incited a mob to storm the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Trump, who has launched a run to regain the White House despite being the focus of several criminal and civil investigations, released a statement Thursday describing the package as a “monstrosity… crammed with left-wing disasters.”

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy had also urged his party to vote no, arguing that his side would have more sway in negotiating the size and scope of federal spending when they wrest the lower chamber from the Democrats in early January.

The House was half empty Friday, with more than 200 representatives using an absentee voting provision, strictly meant only for those with Covid-19, to stay home and cast their ballots by proxy.

Republicans there in person lined up to bemoan the lack of time they had been given to study the bill — it was finalized just three days ago — and the “woke” previsions it contained, such as funding for LGBTQ projects.

There were rumors circulating among congressional staffers and media that McCarthy would use his so-called “magic minute” privilege to spend hours lambasting the bill.

McCarthy held up a budget vote in November of last year with a rambling address lasting a record eight-and-a-half hours.

But he took pity Friday on colleagues trying to get home amid a massive winter storm, reining in his criticism of the legislation to just 25 minutes.

“We are two days away from Christmas,” he said.

“The Christmas season is the season of giving, but in Congress it appears the season of giving will line the pockets of Democrats’ special interests and stick the hard-working Americans with the tab.”

Also Read: Ukraine Says Russia Demolishing Bombed Mariupol Theatre To Hide “Crimes”