US President Joe Biden on Thursday signed a $1.7 trillion spending bill that will keep the federal government operating through the end of the federal budget year in September 2023, and provide tens of billions of dollars in new aid to Ukraine for its fight against the Russian military, The Associated Press reported.
Biden had until late Friday to sign the bill to avoid a partial government shutdown.
The House of Representatives passed the bill 225-201, mostly along party lines, just before Christmas. The House vote came a day after the Senate voted 68-29 to pass the bill.
As in past years, the spending bill includes $3.3 billion in defense aid to Israel, as agreed upon in the 2016 memorandum of understanding signed during the Obama administration and which guarantees Israel $38 billion in security assistance over 10 years, protecting the assistance from the whims of any current or future president.
The funding bill also includes a roughly 6% increase in spending for domestic initiatives, to $772.5 billion. Spending on defense programs will increase by about 10%, to $858 billion.
Passage was achieved hours before financing for federal agencies was set to expire. Lawmakers had approved two short-term spending measures to keep the government operating, and a third, funding the government through Dec. 30, passed last Friday. Biden signed it to ensure services would continue until Congress sent him the full-year measure, called an omnibus bill, according to AP.
The bill provides roughly $45 billion for Ukraine and NATO allies, more than Biden had requested, and also includes about $40 billion in emergency spending, mostly to help communities across the U.S. as they recover from drought, hurricanes and other natural disasters.