U.S. Congress passed the 2023 government spending bill

The Democrat-controlled U.S. House of Representatives passed a $1.66 trillion government spending bill for the next fiscal year, which includes record military funding and emergency aid to Ukraine.

Lawmakers voted mostly along party lines, with 225 votes in favor, including nine Republicans and 201 against. The Senate voted for the bill Thursday.

Before the vote, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told his colleagues that the bill is important not only to fund the government, but also to show that the United States government works. “I ask all of my colleagues to join me in voting yes, showing the world that we will never do nothing in the face of those who believe they can terrorize civilians, seize territory and commit new crimes with impunity,” Hoyer said in response to skepticism from some Republicans about the large spending to support Ukraine.

President Biden released a special statement immediately after the bill passed, saying the president would sign it once it was on his desk.

“This bill is further proof that Democrats and Republicans can come together to benefit the American people, and I look forward to continued bipartisan progress in the coming year,” Biden said in the statement.

In the budget approved by the U.S. Congress, allocating funding through the end of the fiscal year, Sept. 30, 2023, $772.5 billion will go to non-military programs and $858 billion to fund U.S. defense.

The bill includes about $45 billion for emergency aid to Ukraine and NATO allies, and about $40 billion for disaster response, such as hurricanes, wildfires and floods.

Other key provisions of the bill include a revision of the Electoral Vote Counting Act of 1887 to make it more difficult to overturn approved presidential elections. It is the first legislative response to previous President Donald Trump’s persistent campaign of pressure to remain in power despite his 2020 election defeat and a January 6, 2021 coup attempt by his supporters.

Among other provisions, the spending bill also includes a program aimed at simplifying retirement savings, the Secure Act 2.0, and funding to ban the use of the Chinese social network TikTok on government electronic devices in the United States.

The bill is more than 4,000 pages long and the final text was released for review Tuesday night. Some lawmakers believe they had little time to review the document.

Had the budget not been voted on by Friday afternoon, an emergency government shutdown would have been needed because it would have run out of temporary funding that runs from Sept. 30, 2022.