Biden inks $1.7 trillion US government spending bill
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Biden, who was on vacation in the US Virgin Islands for the New Year's holiday, tweeted a photo of himself signing the bill into law.
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The bill US President Joe Biden signed provides tens of billions of dollars in new aid to Ukraine. (AP)
US President Joe Biden inked a $1.7 trillion funding plan on Thursday that will support the US government through the next fiscal year, including another large package for Ukraine.
Biden, who was on vacation in the US Virgin Islands for the New Year's holiday, tweeted a photo of himself signing the bill into law.
"It will invest in medical research, safety, veteran health care, disaster recovery," Biden tweeted, as well as financing for programs combatting violence against women. It is also "Ukraine receives critical aid. I'm looking forward to hearing more in 2023."
Today, I signed the bipartisan omnibus bill, ending a year of historic progress.
— President Biden (@POTUS) December 29, 2022
It'll invest in medical research, safety, veteran health care, disaster recovery, VAWA funding – and gets crucial assistance to Ukraine.
Looking forward to more in 2023. pic.twitter.com/KTI1R9qMij
The funding bill received Republican support in the evenly divided Congress, ensuring simple approval and giving Biden another legislative victory as his second year in office comes to a close.
Even critics have voiced grudging appreciation for the Biden administration's capacity to produce accomplishments as the 80-year-old Democrat prepares to decide whether to run for re-election in 2024.
Ukraine will get $45 billion in the emergency military and economic supplies under the plan. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Washington earlier this month to beg for additional US help.
This comes amid increasing warnings that hundreds of millions of dollars worth of US weapons sent to Ukraine might “drop into a big black hole” not to mention that current US officials and defense analysts agree that the risk is that some of those weapons will end up in the hands of mercenaries.
At the beginning of this month, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari tersely warned that weapons supplied to Ukraine from Western countries are "starting to flow" into the Lake Chad basin region.
Ukraine has received billions and billions of dollars in donated arms from the United States and its allies such as the United Kingdom and other NATO states in the past few months.
