Biden signs massive $1.7 trillion government package

On Thursday of December 29^th, President Biden signed a massive $1.7 trillion spending package to fund the government in the next time period, capping off a year in which the president achieved several bipartisan legislative victories.

Huge government funding package

The president signed the package while vacationing in St. Croix. The bill was delivered to the US Virgin Islands on Thursday after being received from Congress on Wednesday late in the afternoon.

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The goal of the stopgap measure that pushed the deadline back to December 30^th was to give the more than 4,000-page omnibus legislation time to make its way to President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature. 

Financial and military aid to Ukraine totaling $45 billion, plus emergency disaster aid totaling $38 billion, make up a significant part of the massive package. As a result of the attack on the US Capitol on January 6^th, 2021, the Electoral Count Act was updated to make it clear that the vice president does not have the authority to unilaterally overturn the results of a presidential election.

Biden praised these and other provisions in a statement issued after the bill’s passage last week. He also mentioned the package’s support for cancer research, police officer recruitment, and the Violence Against Women Act. 

He also spoke highly of the bill’s support for the PACT Act, which he had signed into law in August to increase health benefits for veterans exposed to toxic substances.

During Biden’s first two years in office, he achieved a number of significant bipartisan legislative victories, including the spending bill. A few others are the bipartisan Gun Control Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the law allocating a trillion dollars for infrastructure.

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The bill was signed by Biden behind closed doors on a day he did not give any interviews or hold any public events. He said this bill moves forward “key priorities for our country and caps off a year of historic bipartisan progress for the American people.”