Biden Signs Funding Bill, Averting Government Shutdown

President Joe Biden delivers remarks in the White House Rose Garden in Washington on Nov. 7, 2024. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

President Joe Biden signed legislation on Dec. 21 to avert a government shutdown just ahead of Christmas, concluding a week of political turmoil in Washington.

The White House announced on the morning of Dec. 21 that Biden had signed into law the American Relief Act (H.R. 10545), which funds the government at current levels through March 14, 2025, and provides $100 billion in disaster aid and $10 billion in agricultural aid to farmers.

Biden described the agreement as a compromise, noting that neither side achieved everything it desired.

“The bipartisan funding bill I just signed keeps the government open and delivers the urgently needed disaster relief that I requested for recovering communities as well as the funds needed to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge,” Biden said in a statement.

The bill passed the Senate in a late-night 85–11 vote that concluded shortly after the midnight shutdown deadline on Saturday. The House of Representatives passed the same bill in a 366–34 vote on Dec. 20, with Biden’s signature marking the final step in a contentious legislative process that saw a previous funding deal collapse amid opposition from President-elect Donald Trump and other Republicans.

“We are really grateful that tonight, in bipartisan fashion with an overwhelming majority of votes, we passed the American Relief Act of 2025,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters on Capitol Hill following the bill’s passage on Dec. 20. “This is a very important piece of legislation.”

Johnson said the package, which he described as “America First legislation,” is a good outcome for the country. Trump, who opposed the first version of the bill and pushed for suspension of the debt ceiling to be included in a second iteration, was also satisfied with the passage of the final, third version, Johnson added.

The initial 1,547-page proposal, a product of months of backroom negotiations between both chambers of Congress, faced opposition from Trump, and was scrapped. A second, scaled-down version that included a suspension of the debt ceiling until January 2027 was overwhelmingly rejected by the House.

The final version that ultimately passed and was signed into law by Biden was similar to the rejected proposal but it stripped out some provisions championed by Democrats and did not include language related to the debt ceiling. Republican leaders said that the debt ceiling issue would be debated as part of their border and tax packages in the new year. The last time the debt cap was raised was in June 2023. Instead of increasing the debt limit by a specific amount, lawmakers opted to suspend it until Jan. 1, 2025.

Some Republicans voted against the final version of the bill because it did not cut spending. The federal debt currently stands at around $36 trillion.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said that Democrats didn’t get everything they wanted in the package but that, on balance, it was a positive outcome.

“There will be no government shutdown right before Christmas,” Schumer wrote in a post on X. “We will keep the government open with a bipartisan bill that funds the government, helps Americans affected by hurricanes and natural disasters, helps our farmers, and avoids harmful cuts.”

A government shutdown threatened to disrupt some services, including some law enforcement operations and national park maintenance, and would have left millions of federal employees without pay.

The last time the federal government shut down was during Trump’s first term in office. The 35-day-long shutdown was prompted by a dispute over border security.