Factual. Independent. Impartial.
We supply news, images and multimedia to hundreds of news outlets every day
World
Richard Cowan, David Morgan and Makini Brice

US Congress averts shutdown, passes $1.8 trillion bill

US House Speaker Mike Johnson faces criticism from some Republicans after a funding bill passed. (AP PHOTO)

The United States Congress has overwhelmingly passed a $US1.2 ($A1.8) trillion budget bill, keeping the government funded through a fiscal year that began six months ago and sending it to President Joe Biden to sign into law and avert a partial shutdown.

The early Saturday vote on passage was 74-24.

Key federal agencies including the departments of Homeland Security, Justice, State and Treasury, which houses the Internal Revenue Service, will remain funded through September 30 after the bill was passed in the Democratic-majority Senate.

But the measure did not include funding for mostly military aid to Ukraine, Taiwan or Israel, which are included in a different Senate-passed bill that the Republican-led House of Representatives has ignored.

Senate leaders spent hours on Friday negotiating amendments to the budget bill that ultimately were defeated.

The delay pushed passage beyond a Friday midnight deadline.

But the White House Office of Management and Budget issued a statement saying agencies would not be ordered to shut, expressing confidence that the Senate would promptly pass the bill, which it did.

While Congress got the job done, deep partisan divides were on display again, as well as bitter disagreement within the House's narrow and fractious Republican majority.

Conservative firebrand Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene threatened to force a vote to remove Speaker Mike Johnson, a fellow Republican, for allowing the measure to pass.

The 1012-page bill provides $US886 billion ($A1.4 trillion) in funding for the defence department, including a raise for US troops.

Biden, a Democrat, has indicated he will sign it.

Johnson, as he has done more than 60 times since succeeding his ousted predecessor Kevin McCarthy in October, relied on a parliamentary manoeuvre on Friday to bypass hardliners within his party, allowing the measure to pass by a 286-134 vote that had substantially more Democratic support than Republican.

For most of the past six months, the government was funded with four short-term stopgap measures, a sign of the repeated brinkmanship that ratings agencies have warned could hurt the creditworthiness of a federal government that has almost $US34.6 ($A53) trillion in debt.

Marjorie Taylor Greene
Conservative Marjorie Taylor Greene threatened to force a vote to remove Speaker Mike Johnson.

"This legislation is truly a national security bill - 70 per cent of the funding in this package is for our national defence, including investments that strengthen our military readiness and industrial base, provide pay and benefit increases for our brave servicemembers and support our closest allies," said Republican Senator Susan Collins, one of the main negotiators.

Opponents cast the bill as too expensive.

"It's reckless, it leads to inflation - it's a direct vote to steal your paycheck," said Senator Rand Paul, part of a band of Republicans who generally oppose most spending bills.

The last partial federal government shutdown occurred during Donald Trump's presidency, from December 22, 2018, until January 25, 2019.

The record-long interruption in government services came as the Republican insisted on money to build a wall along the US border with Mexico and was unable to broker a deal with Democrats.

The new budget bill passed the House with 185 Democratic and 101 Republican votes, which led Greene, a hardline conservative, to introduce her measure to oust Johnson.

That move had echoes of October, when a small band of hardliners engineered a vote that removed McCarthy for relying on Democrats to pass a stopgap measure to avert another partial government shutdown.

Greene said she would not push for an immediate vote on her move to force Johnson out.

"I filed a motion to vacate today but it's more of a warning than a pink slip," the Georgia Republican told reporters.

Lawmakers will now leave Washington for a two-week break.

License this article

Sign up to read this article
Get your dose of factual, independent and impartial news
Already a member? Sign in here
Top stories on AAP right now