“The Senate on Tuesday passed a short-term spending bill that would keep the government running through Dec. 7, aiming to avert a government shutdown and put off a fight over funding for President Trump’s border wall until after the midterm elections.”
“The short-term bill came attached to a massive budget package containing full-year 2019 funding for the Pentagon as well as for the Labor, Education and Health and Human Services departments. GOP leaders designed the package to combine key Republican and Democratic priorities in an attempt to garner overwhelming bipartisan support. The package also aims to satisfy Trump’s desire for more military spending…”
“All told, the Pentagon and Labor-HHS spending bills account for more than 60 percent of all discretionary spending, which is the portion of the $4 trillion federal budget that Congress doles out annually. That does not include what are called “mandatory” spending programs, such as Social Security and Medicare…” Read the full article here.
Source: Senate passes defense and health spending bill, tries to delay border-wall fight to after midterms – By Erica Werner, September 18, 2018. The Washington Post.
