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Obama Signs Trillion-Dollar Federal Spending Bill

President Obama signed the $1.1 trillion spending bill into law Friday afternoon, enacting more than 1,500 pages of legislation that received broad support in the House and Senate earlier this week. The expansive bill ensures the U.S. government won't face a potential shutdown until at least October.

As we reported yesterday, the omnibus spending bill is the result of a compromise brokered in December by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis. If their deal holds in coming months, it should keep the issue of a federal shutdown off the table through the coming election season.

The AP reminds us that the bill signed today "funds every agency of the federal government and also scales back automatic spending cuts that hit the Pentagon and major domestic programs last year."

The spending legislation was approved in the Senate by a vote of 72-26, and in the House by a 359-67 margin.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Bill Chappell is a writer and editor on the News Desk in the heart of NPR's newsroom in Washington, D.C.