The House of Representatives approved a $1.2 trillion spending package on Friday, just hours before funding for several key federal agencies expires. the fall.

The bill passed by a vote of 286 to 134 and now heads to the Senate, where leadership hopes for a final vote later Friday. More than 70% of the money would go to defense.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) advanced the bill through a streamlined process that required two-thirds support for passage.

Lawmakers could still miss the midnight deadline for funding the government because action in the Senate could take time. But the short-term practical impact would be minimal. With most federal workers off duty this weekend and many government services funded by previous legislation, a shutdown would be mostly without incident unless things drag on Monday.

Johnson split this budget year’s spending bills into two parts as Republicans in the House of Representatives rebelled against what has become an annual practice of asking them to vote for one huge, complex bill with little time to review it or create a risk closure. Johnson considered that a breakthrough. Still, most of the opposition Friday came from Republicans, who said the bill contained too few of their policy priorities and spent too much.

The bottom line is this is a complete surrender,” said Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.), who called himself “an absolute no” on this bill.

Opponents mainly took issue with fellow Republicans who voted for the bill and the actions of Republican leaders in the House of Representatives. Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) even went so far as to clearly say that Democrats own the gavel.

We told people we were going to have smaller government, and we told people we were going to secure the border, said Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio). It’s a sad day.

It took six months of the current budget year for the legislation to approach the finish line. The process was slowed by conservatives pushing for more policy mandates and sharper cuts than a Democratic-led Senate or the White House would consider. The impasse required some short-term emergency legislation to keep the agencies funded while negotiations continued.

It’s ironic that the group that has compromised the most in the past year continues to resist difficult compromises, Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said during floor debate on the bill. Legislative action is about compromise.

The first full-year budget package, which funded the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture and the Interior, among others, Congress two weeks ago authorized just a few hours of savings before funding for those agencies expired. Now lawmakers are considering the second package in a similar scenario.

The 1,012-page bill also funds the departments of Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, Labor and others.

Non-defense spending will remain relatively flat compared to the previous year, although some, such as the Environmental Protection Agency, will take a hit, and many agencies will not see their budgets keep up with inflation.

When the two packages are combined, discretionary spending for the budget year will amount to about $1.66 trillion. That doesn’t include programs like Social Security and Medicare, or financing the country’s rising debt burden.

House Republicans succeeded in securing a provision that would ban funding through March 2025 for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, the main provider of food, water and shelter to civilians in Gaza.

Republicans are calling for a freeze on funding for the agency after Israel alleged that a dozen agency employees were involved in the October 1 attack Hamas carried out in Israel. 7.

But the ban does affect certain laws, as many aid groups say there is no way to replace their ability to deliver the humanitarian aid that the United States and others are trying to send to Gaza, where a quarter of the 2, 3 million inhabitants are dying. according to the United Nations.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the leading Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said the provision has caused some problems among Democratic members, but she also pointed out that Democrats were able to secure more humanitarian aid overall. It will increase by about $336 million from last year’s level.

To win Republican support, Johnson has also touted some of the spending increases committed to around 8,000 additional detention beds for migrants awaiting immigration proceedings or removal from the country. That’s an increase of about 24% from current levels. Republican leadership also emphasized that more money was needed to hire about 2,000 Border Patrol agents.

Democrats, meanwhile, are boasting a $1 billion increase for Head Start programs and new child care centers for military families. They also pitched a $120 million increase in funding for cancer research and a $100 million increase for Alzheimer’s disease research.

We defeated bizarre cuts that would have been a blow to American families and our economy, said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.).

The spending in the bill largely follows an agreement that then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-

Bakersfield

)

California,

worked with the White House in May 2023, which limited spending for two years and suspended the debt ceiling until January 2025 so the federal government could continue paying its bills.

Shalanda Young, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, told lawmakers Thursday that last year’s deal, which became the Fiscal Responsibility Act, will save the federal government about $1 trillion over the next decade.

Members of both parties expressed frustration at how long the process has taken and that the end result was what so many had predicted. They warned all along that Republicans would not get the vast majority of policy mandates they sought, or that they would not make cuts beyond what McCarthy and the White House agreed to last year.

People were living in a dream world and thinking, ‘Well, we’re going to something different than what McCarthy had an agreement with the president on,'” said Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.).

Freking writes for the Associated Press. AP congressional correspondent Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.