US to provide more aid to Ukraine as spending package approved by lawmakers

A 1.7 trillion dollar spending Bill financing federal agencies through to September and providing more aid to Ukraine has cleared the House as US lawmakers race to finish their work for the year and avoid a partial government shutdown.

The Bill passed mostly along party lines, 225-201. It now goes to President Joe Biden to be signed into law.

Passage of the Bill represented a closing act for Nancy Pelosi’s second stint as House speaker, and for the Democratic majority she led back to power in the 2018 election.

Republicans will take control of the House next year and Kevin McCarthy is campaigning to replace her.

He is appealing for support from staunch conservatives in his caucus who have largely criticised the size of the Bill and many of the priorities it contains.

“This is a monstrosity that is one of the most shameful acts I’ve ever seen in this body,” Mr McCarthy said of the legislation.

The speech prompted a quick quip from Democrat Jim McGovern, who said “after listening to that, it’s clear he doesn’t have the votes yet” – a reference to Mr McCarthy’s campaign to become speaker.

Ms Pelosi said “we have a big Bill here because we had big needs for the country” and then turned her focus to Mr McCarthy.

“It was sad to hear the minority leader say that this legislation is the most shameful thing to be seen on the House floor in this Congress,” Ms Pelosi said. “I can’t help but wonder, had he forgotten January 6th?”

The Senate passed the defence-heavy measure with significant bipartisan support on Thursday but the vote was much more split in the House. Some 30 Republican lawmakers promised to block any legislative priority that comes from those Republican senators who voted for the Bill and leadership urged a no vote.

The Bill runs for 4,155 pages, not including amendments the Senate added. It contains about a 6% percent increase in spending for domestic initiatives, to 772.5 billion dollars. Spending on defence programmes will increase by about 10% to 858 billion.

The massive Bill wraps together 12 appropriations Bills, aid to Ukraine and disaster relief for communities recovering from hurricanes, flooding and wildfires. It also contains scores of policy changes that lawmakers worked to include in the final major Bill being considered by the current Congress.

Lawmakers provided roughly 45 billion dollars for Ukraine and Nato allies, more than even Mr Biden requested, an acknowledgment that future rounds of funding are not guaranteed with a new Republican-led House.

In a dramatic address to a joint meeting of Congress on Wednesday night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told lawmakers that the aid was not charity, but an investment in global security and democracy.