The House passed a $1.4 trillion federal spending package that averts a government shutdown and maintains some funding for a southern border wall.
The measure passed Tuesday despite the objections of liberal Democrats and members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, who said they opposed the $1.375 billion allocated for the construction of a southern border wall as well as other border security provisions.
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The spending bill would provide funding through the rest of fiscal 2020. It passed in two different measures in order to avoid sending President Trump one “omnibus” package, which he had vowed to reject.
The measure now heads to the U.S. Senate, where lawmakers are expected to pass it on Thursday and send it to Trump’s desk.
“I’m hopeful,” Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, said when asked if Trump will approve the spending bills. “I don’t have any indication to the contrary.”
Republicans told reporters on Thursday they believe he’ll sign the bill.
While it falls short of providing the $8 billion in wall funding Trump had been seeking, it preserves his authority to transfer certain federal funding for additional border wall construction.
Trump transferred more than $7 billion earlier this year to the wall project. The move is under a court challenge.
“It represents, for sure, a tough compromise,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida Democrat, said in support of the spending bill.
The spending bill includes provisions eliminating both the medical device tax and the tax on high-cost health insurance policies. The two taxes were intended to fund Obamacare but are unpopular.
In addition to Democratic objections to the bill, some Republicans also voted against it, citing the increase in the federal debt and deficit.
More than 80 Democrats voted “no” on the spending package, the vast majority rejecting the measure that includes border security and the wall funding.
