Biden signs $1.5 trln omnibus spending bill into law

Washington, March 16: US President Joe Biden has signed into law a $1.5 trillion omnibus spending bill for the fiscal year 2022 to fund the federal government through the end of September. "With this bill, we're going to send a message to the American people, a strong message that Democrats, Republicans can actually come together and get something done," Biden said on Tuesday at the White House, adding the bill will "fulfill our most basic responsibilities" to keep the government open, Xinhua news agency reported.

The bill, which was approved by US Congress last week, includes $730 billion in non-defence funding and $782 billion in defence funding. The legislation also provides $13.6 billion in supplemental funding to boost humanitarian, security and economic assistance related to the Ukraine conflict.

However, the bill does not include additional Covid-19 funding that the White House had asked Congress for to support the federal government's response to the pandemic.

"As we enter a new moment in the pandemic, Congress has not provided us with the funding we need to continue the Covid-19 response and minimize the pandemic's impact to the Nation and our economy," the White House said on Tuesday in a fact sheet.

"As the administration has warned, failure to fund these efforts now will have severe consequences as we will not be equipped to deal with a future surge. Waiting to provide funding once we're in a surge will be too late," said the White House.