The House on Wednesday easily approved a $1 trillion omnibus spending bill that would fund the government for the rest of fiscal 2014 and let Congress avoid the risk of a shutdown until the end of September.
Members voted 359-67 to pass the bill, which was opposed by 64 Republicans and three Democrats.
The three Democrats who voted “no” were Reps. Raúl Grijalva (Ariz.), Rush Holt (N.J.) and Mike McIntyre (N.C.), a centrist Democrat who is retiring at the end of this Congress.
Some Republicans were known to oppose the bill, given their opposition to restoring some of the sequester cuts, as was agreed to as part of the budget deal struck late last year. The bill allows discretionary spending to increase by $45 billion compared to the sequester.
“True, it adheres to the budget passed in December, but that’s nothing to brag about,” Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) said of the spending bill. “That budget destroyed the only meaningful constraint on federal spending that we had.”
