Politics

Senate Passes $1.4 Trillion Spending Package To Prevent Government Shutdown — Sends It To Trump’s Desk

Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Henry Rodgers Chief National Correspondent
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The Senate voted to pass a $1.4 trillion spending package Thursday to prevent a government shutdown just days before the government would run out of money.

The government was currently being funded from a continuing resolution (CR), which was passed in the House in November and provided funding until Dec. 20. There were two votes on separate measures. The first bill passed 71 to 23. The second spending bill passed 81 to 11.

The bill will increase the age for purchasing tobacco products from 18 to 21, and it offers provisions on export financing, flood insurance, and immigrant workers, according to PBS. $1.8 billion for President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall was also included in this package.

President Donald Trump smiles during a bilateral meeting with Japan’s Prime Minister at the Bellevue centre in Biarritz, south-west France on August 25, 2019 (Photo credit: NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)

Democratic leadership in the House put together a spending package in September and gave it to members less than 24 hours before the Democrat-controlled House planned to vote on the legislation. (RELATED: House Democratic Leadership Unveils Last-Minute Spending Package)

The situation was very similar to the shutdown before Christmas in 2018, when House leadership passed a continuing resolution earlier in 2018 and moved appropriations until the holiday season. The House Freedom Caucus then convinced Trump to hold out over wall funding, starting the longest shutdown in recent history which lasted until January of 2019. (RELATED: House Dems Release Plan To End Shutdown — No Wall Included)

Trump is expected to sign the package, which will keep the government from a shutdown.