Biden signs $1.7 trillion spending bill

Dec. 30 (UPI) — President Joe Biden signed a $1.7 trillion spending bill late Thursday that included domestic priorities, reforms to the Electoral Count Act and a new round of defense spending.

Biden took a brief break from vacationing in the U.S. Virgin Islands to sign the bill with some Republican support. The legislation included $45 billion for Ukraine, $40 billion for disaster relief for communities recovering from hurricanes, wildfires, drought and other natural disasters; and bans TikTok on federal agencies’ devices.

“Today, I signed the bipartisan omnibus bill, ending a year of historic progress,” Biden said on his Twitter account. “It’ll invest in medical research, safety, veteran health care, disaster recovery, [Violence Against Women Act] funding — and gets crucial assistance to Ukraine. Looking forward to more in 2023.”

House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., the likely future House Speaker, voted against the bill and called its delay until the new House, led by Republicans, took over next week.

“This is a monstrosity that is one of the most shameful acts I’ve seen in this body,” McCarthy said last week. “The appropriations process failed the American public, and there’s no greater example of the nail in the coffin of the greatest failure of a one-party rule.”

The bill, though, was trumpeted by Biden and his administration as an example of bipartisan legislation that passed over the first two years of his term.

“President Biden signed the landmark Inflation Reduction Act, making unprecedented investments in clean energy, finally allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices, setting a $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket pharmacy costs, capping insulin in Medicare at $35 per prescription per month, and requiring rebates when drug prices increase faster than inflation,” said Cabinet member Susan Rice in a White House statement Thursday.

“The president brought together Democrats and Republicans to pass the most significant gun safety legislation in nearly 30 years, securing hundreds of millions in funding to prevent, interrupt, and reduce gun crime, including unprecedented investments in community-led crime prevention and intervention.”

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