The Senate has now passed half of its annual spending bills after a Thursday afternoon vote to fund the Justice Department and several other federal agencies.
The overwhelming majority of senators supported a three-bill package that also keeps the Interior, Commerce, and Energy departments operating past a Jan. 30 government funding deadline.
Senators left town after passing the measure and won’t return until the final week of January, giving them just days to make further progress. Senate leaders praised the vote as a sign that the appropriations process is back on track after a record-breaking government shutdown that ended in November.
The bill, which cleared the House last week, passed in the upper chamber on Thursday in an 82-15 vote and now heads to President Donald Trump’s desk. An earlier batch of three appropriations bills was signed into law when the government reopened.
“We have a Jan. 30 deadline to fund the remainder of the federal government, and we’re on track to do that,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said in a floor speech.
The House has already teed up two more bills funding the Treasury and State departments, but the greater challenge will be the final four, which cover the Pentagon, among other agencies, and account for the largest share of federal spending.
Leadership has had particular trouble getting the Department of Homeland Security bill across the finish line as Democrats demand new guardrails on Immigration and Customs Enforcement after an officer fatally shot a woman in Minneapolis last week.
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“Appropriators are working on another package of the four remaining bills, which I hope will receive the same bipartisan backing that has characterized the appropriations cycle thus far,” Thune said in his speech.
As of now, appropriators are hoping to release text for the next bills over the weekend.