Obama signs huge spending bill, averts shutdown

President Barack Obama. AP

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama on Tuesday signed a spending bill to keep most of the federal government funded for almost a year, the White House said.

Obama signed the act “which provides fiscal year 2015 full-year appropriations through September 30, 2015 for all agencies except the Department of Homeland Security, for which appropriations are provided instead through February 27, 2015,” White House spokesman John Earnest said.

On Saturday, Congress passed a $1.1-trillion spending bill for fiscal year 2015, capping a week of acrimonious wrangling while averting a government shutdown and sending the measure to Obama.

By funding the Department of Homeland Security until only February, it sets up a showdown over Obama’s controversial immigration plan early next year, when a Congress under full Republican control will take another shot at rolling back Obama’s executive order shielding millions from deportation.

The battle over funding has been a bruiser. It included a revolt by House Democrats that nearly sank the measure last week, and procedural delay tactics in the Senate.

Congress needed to pass funding extensions twice in as many days to keep government from tumbling into a shutdown, as leaders struggled to get the funding across the finish line and bid farewell to the 113th Congress, one of the least productive sessions in modern history.

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