Biden signs spending package, averts gov shutdown

On Saturday, President Joe Biden signed the third government spending package that was introduced into Congress. This comes after two bills were introduced by the House, with one getting tanked by a flurry of posts from Elon Musk as well as a post from President-elect Donald Trump, and another losing in a vote on Thursday.  

The White House released a statement on Saturday, "The bipartisan funding bill I just signed keeps the government open and delivers the urgently needed disaster relief that I requested for recovering communities as well as the funds needed to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge." 

Biden added in the statement, "This agreement represents a compromise, which means neither side got everything it wanted.” The bill includes funding that goes until March along with $100 billion in disaster relief for those impacted by Hurricanes Helene and Milton in the US. There is also a $10 billion provision for farmers 

The spending bill saga started on Tuesday evening, when a 1,500+ page bill was introduced by House leadership. House Speaker Mike Johnson said that evening he was on a text chain with Department of Government Efficiency heads Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, where they agreed that they did not like the amount of spending, but Johnson said he was forced into a compromise on the bill. 

On Wednesday, Musk sent out several posts on X slamming the bill over different provisions, including a raise for Congress as well as continued funding for the State Department's Global Engagement Center, a government entity that has been accused of Musk and conservatives as engaging in censorship.  

Following Musk's posts, as well as some words from Ramaswamy, Trump said that he was "totally against" the 1,500+ page spending package. Johnson then went with a "plan B," and moved forward with a bill that was cut down to around 116 pages. One of the provisions that Trump backed in the 116-page bill was a suspension of the debt limit. This caused more tension in the GOP House coalition, and 38 House members ultimately voted against it, along with the majority of Democrats on Thursday evening.  

Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), was chief among those critical of the debt limit suspension and voted "no" along with many lawmakers from the House Freedom Caucus. On Friday, with hours until a government shutdown, Johnson and House leadership were able to come to an agreement without the inclusion of a debt limit suspension and the bill passed the House and was then voted through in the Senate and went to Biden's desk.