WASHINGTON, December 14 (Sputnik) – US President Barack Obama has signed a budget bill that will fund the US government through December 17, the White House has announced in a press statement.
The temporary government funding bill that Obama signed into law on Saturday was earlier passed by the US Senate.
The Senate has yet to vote on a final government budget already approved by the US House of Representatives.
The House passed the $1.1 trillion spending bill just hours before the US government's spending authority was due to expire on Thursday, averting a shutdown.
The bill will fund most of the US federal government through September, 2015, but because of the Republican's resistance to Obama's executive order on immigration, the Department of Homeland Security will only be funded through February. This will allow House and Senate Republicans to revisit the immigration reform issue and challenge it next year.
Last year, Congress could not agree either on an annual federal budget or a short-term funding bill, which led to a partial US government shutdown.