WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden on Thursday signed a $1.66 trillion bill funding the U.S. government for fiscal year 2023, the White House said in a statement.
Biden signed the bill, which passed Congress last week, while vacationing on the Caribbean island of St. Croix.
The legislation includes record military funding, emergency aid to Ukraine, more aid for students with disabilities, additional funding to protect workers’ rights and more job-training resources, as well as more affordable housing for families, veterans and those fleeing domestic violence.
The 4,000-plus page bill passed the Senate on a bipartisan vote of 68-29, with the support of 18 of the 50 Senate Republicans. It passed the House of Representatives on a largely party-line vote of 225-201.
Meanwhile, Biden has pardoned six people who have served out sentences after convictions on a murder charge and drug- and alcohol-related crimes, including an 80-year-old woman convicted of killing her abusive husband about a half-century ago and a man who pleaded guilty to using a telephone for a cocaine transaction in the 1970s. –Agencies
