WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Friday urged the Senate to ratify a $1.1 trillion spending bill that has roiled his Democratic Party, judging it an imperfect measure that stems from “the divided government that the American people voted for.”
One day after House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi publicly chastised him for supporting the bill, the president said there were provisions “I really do not like.” At the same time, he said there were other portions that “fund health insurance, early childhood education, the fight against climate change and expand manufacturing hubs to grow jobs.”
He offered his assessment as Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid also announced support for the legislation, further underscoring the split inside the party. The Democrats will lose control of the Senate in January because of heavy losses in midterm elections last month and will go deeper into a House minority than at any time since 1928.
With lawmakers eager to wrap up work for the year, there was little doubt the huge spending measure would clear the Senate within a day or two. To give the Senate time to complete action, Obama signed a 48-hour law overnight to keep the government funded and prevent a shutdown that both parties have pledged to avoid.
Nor was there much if any controversy over the spending levels in the spending measure, which provides funding to keep nearly the entire government operating through the Sept. 30 end of the current budget year.