WASHINGTON — Congress completed the fiscal 2024 appropriations process early Saturday with a roughly $1.2 trillion package covering six major spending bills, ending months of temporary funding measures and removing the immediate threat of another federal shutdown. The Senate approved the legislation 74-24 after an overnight session, following a 286-134 House vote on Friday; President Joe Biden signed it later Saturday. The package funds about three-quarters of the federal government through September 30, including the departments of Defense, Homeland Security, State, Treasury, Labor, Health and Human Services and Education. The final vote closed a budget cycle that had repeatedly pushed Congress to the edge of funding lapses and required four stopgap measures before lawmakers completed all 12 annual appropriations bills. The Senate Appropriations Committee described the measure as the final six-bill funding package, while the chamber's official wrap-up recorded the decisive 74-24 vote. Contemporary reporting confirmed Biden's signature later Saturday.

The bill is a product of divided government rather than a single-party budget blueprint. Senate Appropriations Chair Patty Murray and Vice Chair Susan Collins had announced a bipartisan agreement on the final bills on Thursday, calling them a negotiated compromise designed to finish the appropriations process without a shutdown. Their joint statement emphasized national security, domestic investment and the rejection of policy riders that could not command broad support. Collins' minority-side summary likewise described the package as the second and final set of FY2024 bills and stressed its defense and security components. That summary noted that the legislation covers Defense, Financial Services, Homeland Security, Labor-HHS-Education, Legislative Branch and State-Foreign Operations.

A six-bill compromise after months of extensions

The basic mechanism is straightforward but politically significant. Congress had already enacted the first six appropriations bills earlier in March. The second package completes the remaining six and allows agencies to operate on full-year funding rather than continuing resolutions. The appropriations committees had reached a topline agreement weeks earlier, but negotiations over individual accounts and policy restrictions continued until the final legislative text was released March 21. Murray and congressional appropriators said the final package adheres to spending constraints negotiated under the Fiscal Responsibility Act while preserving core domestic programs. The committee's release highlighted a $1 billion increase for child care and early learning, continued support for public schools and Pell Grants, resources for border operations and fentanyl interdiction, and funding for U.S. diplomatic and humanitarian programs.

The package also illustrates how much of annual federal spending is locked into cross-party bargaining. The Labor-HHS-Education bill alone provides $222.2 billion in base discretionary funding, according to the committee's bill summary. It maintains funding for medical research, education, child care, workforce programs and the 988 crisis line. The State and Foreign Operations bill provides $58.346 billion for the State Department, USAID and related programs, according to its summary. The Financial Services bill funds Treasury, the federal judiciary, the District of Columbia, the Small Business Administration and numerous independent agencies.

Defense dominates the topline

National defense accounts for the largest share of the package. Collins said roughly 70% of the funding is devoted to national defense and related security priorities. The measure supports military pay and benefits, readiness, procurement and the defense industrial base while also funding diplomatic operations and humanitarian accounts. The broader FY2024 defense topline is about $886 billion. The package does not resolve the separate debate over supplemental military aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan; that remains before Congress on a different legislative track.

Homeland Security funding was among the most difficult negotiating areas. The final bill adds resources for border operations and enforcement while avoiding many of the policy provisions that had stalled earlier negotiations. The appropriations committees framed the outcome as an example of practical bargaining under divided control of the House, Senate and White House. The House vote itself underscored that reality: the legislation passed with substantial Democratic support and a significant bloc of Republican opposition.

A shutdown technically brushed but not operationally felt

The Senate finished its vote after the midnight deadline, meaning appropriations authority technically lapsed for several agencies for a brief period. But the Office of Management and Budget did not initiate shutdown procedures because final passage was imminent and the president was expected to sign the bill. In practical terms, federal operations continued without the furloughs, closures and service interruptions normally associated with a shutdown.

The political effect may outlast the procedural one. House Speaker Mike Johnson relied on Democrats to move the package through the chamber, and the vote immediately intensified criticism from conservative Republicans who argued that the legislation spent too much and conceded too much on policy. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene filed a motion that could eventually be used to force a vote on removing Johnson, although no immediate removal vote was scheduled. That means the appropriations deal simultaneously solved the government's funding problem and added pressure to an already narrow House majority.

What the package changes now

For agencies, the most important change is certainty. Full-year appropriations allow departments to obligate funds, award grants and contracts, hire staff and execute programs without planning around another near-term expiration date. For businesses and state governments, the end of the shutdown cycle reduces the risk of interrupted federal payments, delayed permits and data releases, and disruptions to public-facing services.

For Congress, the measure closes an unusually prolonged FY2024 appropriations process six months after the fiscal year began. It does not settle broader fiscal disagreements over debt, taxes, entitlement spending or the next annual budget. Those conflicts will return quickly as lawmakers begin work on fiscal 2025. But as of Saturday night, the immediate operational question is resolved: all 12 annual appropriations bills have cleared Congress, the final six-bill package has been signed, and federal agencies are funded through the end of September.