In a very rare weekend session, the Senate voted 56-40 late Saturday evening to pass the FY15 $1.1 trillion spending package that funds most of the government through next September. As previously discussed in this blog, the package includes 11 appropriations bills that fund most of the government through Sept. 30 and a continuing resolution (CR) funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through Feb. 27.
The bill nearly died in the House earlier last week after House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), a rising star among her party’s liberal base, urged House Democrats to oppose it. Regardless, the package narrowly passed the House on Thursday night in a 219-206 vote after Obama hit the phones to quell a Democratic uprising against it.
Notable Senators voting against the legislation include several Republican and Democratic senators rumored to have presidential ambitions such as Rand Paul (R-KY), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
The vote culminates a week of acrimonious posturing in both the House and Senate and sends the spending bill to President Obama’s desk for a signature.
The House has recessed for the year and the Senate is expect to recess this week. Both bodies of Congress will reconvene in January 2015 to swear in the new 114th Congress.