Obama signs $1.1T spending package

President Obama on Tuesday signed the $1.1 trillion government spending bill passed by Congress last week into law, the White House announced.

His signature averts a government shutdown that would have otherwise been triggered if he didn’t sign it before midnight on Wednesday.

Dubbed the “cromnibus,” the spending package contains 11 appropriations bills that fund most of the government through Sept. 30. It also includes a continuing resolution (CR) that funds the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through Feb. 27. 

GOP leaders chose to fund the DHS for only a short period to satisfy conservatives who pushed to defund Obama’s immigration executive orders.

{mosads}The president signed the measure into law just a week after congressional leaders unveiled the more than 1,600-page bill.

Some of the bill’s provisions sparked an intense debate, mostly among Democrats last week because it repeals a portion of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law. 

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) led the charge against the rider that will now allow banks to engage directly in derivatives trading. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) also led a revolt against the entire package, with most of her caucus behind her, because of that rider.

Obama opposed the provision, among others, the White House said, but it signaled that the president would support the bill just hours before the House was scheduled to vote on it last Thursday. 

The White House dispatched Obama’s chief of staff Denis McDonough to Capitol Hill to win over more Democratic votes, but many Democrats said he wasn’t too convincing. The House passed the bill late Thursday in a 219-206 vote.

The Senate later passed the bill 56-40 on Saturday night, after Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) triggered an hours-long series of votes that day.