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US Congress sends massive spending bill to Obama

Business Materials 17 January 2014 04:36 (UTC +04:00)
The US Senate voted 72 to 26 late Thursday in favour of a massive government spending bill that avoid another government shutdown until at least October, dpa reported.
US Congress sends massive spending bill to Obama

The US Senate voted 72 to 26 late Thursday in favour of a massive government spending bill that avoid another government shutdown until at least October, dpa reported.

The 1.1-trillion-dollar bill, which eases tough spending cuts in place since March 2013, overwhelmingly passed the House of Representatives earlier and now goes to President Barack Obama for his signature.

Obama is expected to sign it by Saturday, the Washington Post reported.

US congressional negotiators unveiled the spending bill Monday. Lawmakers quickly passed a resolution to ensure that money for the nation's museums, agency offices and national parks would not expire before the measure became law. The original deadline for passage had been Wednesday.

The 1.1-trillion-dollar spending bill issues money for government functions for the rest of the budget year through September, filling in the blanks of a bipartisan budget agreement reached last month.

The bill means the Pentagon will avoid a roughly 20-billion-dollar cut, and domestic agencies will receive spending increases, the Washington Post reported.

Despite those increases, the bill would leave agency budgets tens of billions of dollars lower than President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats had sought.

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