U.S. House passes 1.7 trillion-USD gov't funding package

WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. House of Representatives passed a massive package on Friday to fund the federal government.

The omnibus bill -- worth 1.7 trillion U.S. dollars -- cleared the Senate on Thursday and is being sent to the White House.

U.S. President Joe Biden said on Friday that he "will sign it into law as soon as it reaches my desk."

Biden later signed a short-term funding bill into law to avert a partial government shutdown ahead of the midnight deadline.

The one-week continuing resolution has given more time for the spending bill, which runs more than 4,000 pages, to be processed for Biden's signature.

The massive spending legislation for fiscal year 2023 includes 772.5 billion dollars for non-defense, domestic programs, and 858 billion dollars in defense funding, nearly a 10 percent boost over the previous year.

It also provides about 45 billion dollars in emergency funding for Ukraine amid its ongoing conflicts with Russia.

The United States has been heavily criticized for hefty spending on military activities. In 2021, the U.S. military spending represented nearly 40 percent of the world's total, more than the next nine countries combined.