Congress on Friday (Dec 23) cleared a roughly US$1.7 trillion government funding package that would provide significant increases to national security and domestic spending and billions of dollars to aid Ukraine, sending the measure to President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature.

The bill was the last major legislative accomplishment of the 117th Congress and set aside US$858 billion in funds for the military that Republicans pushed for and more than US$772 billion for the education, health and veterans programmes Democrats have championed. The measure is the second major government funding bill passed during the Biden administration and served as the final opportunity for congressional Democrats to shape the federal budget while they retain control of both chambers.

On nearly party lines, the House approved the more than 4,000-page bill by a vote of 225-201, with one lawmaker voting present, a day after it was shepherded through the Senate. It concluded a scramble driven by the threat of both a government shutdown and a winter storm, a desire to enact unfinished legislation before the start of divided government next month, and a surprise appearance in Washington this week by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, who urged continued investment in his country’s fight against Russian invasion.

Biden, who is expected to sign the measure in the coming days, said that it “advances key priorities for our country and caps off a year of historic bipartisan progress for the American people”.

To ensure that the government does not run out of funds and shut down at the end of Friday as the legislation is processed, the House also approved a one-week stopgap bill.

“We have a big bill here because we have big needs for our country,” speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said on Friday, noting that it was most likely her last speech on the House floor as speaker.

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The legislation guarantees that the government will remain open through the end of the current fiscal year on Sep 30.

It unlocks key funding accounted for in bipartisan legislation approved earlier this session, including money previously set aside in the infrastructure law and the industrial policy law. The package also sets aside more than US$15 billion for lawmakers to direct money to over 7,200 community projects in their districts and states. NYTIMES