Senate passes massive spending bill in push to end August session early

The Senate on Thursday passed a massive spending bill that will fund the Departments of Defense, Labor, Education, and Health and Human Services Departments for fiscal 2019, in the hopes of quickly wrapping up their rare August work session in Washington.

The only thing left they need to do is work out a deal to consider a long list of Trump administration nominees. If they can reach a deal Thursday, the Senate would not have to convene next week, which was supposed to be its final week at work this month.