President Barack Obama on Saturday signed a trillion-dollar spending bill that will keep the government up and running for the next nine months, Al-Jazeera reports.
“Passage of the 1,603-page bill on Saturday was a long, tough struggle in the Senate and the House of Representatives marked by bitter disputes over changes to banking regulations and Obama's recent executive order on immigration,” the news report explains.
The bill was one of the last items on this outgoing Congress’ to-do list. “In January, the new Congress will return with Republicans in charge of both chambers,” the site notes.
Both sides of the aisle were not pleased with some aspects of the spending package.
“Liberal Democrats, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, objected to a weakening of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, while conservative Republicans, led by Tea Party firebrand Ted Cruz, tried to sink it for failing to stop Obama’s [immigration] order,” Al-Jazeera reports.
The Texas senator’s delay tactics didn’t work and in fact “created an opening for Democrats in a rare Saturday session to push through dozens of Obama’s nominations who were opposed by Republicans, from judges to energy regulators,” the news report explains.
This wasn’t the first time that Cruz has tried to impede Obama’s spending initiatives. “He was a central figure in a 16-day government shutdown in October 2013, when he persuaded Republicans to try to withhold funds from Obamacare, the landmark health care reform law,” Al-Jazeera reports.
Read more at Al-Jazeera.