US House approves 1 trillion spending bill for 2014

US House Speaker John Boehner (C) returns to his office after a vote on the House floor to approve a spending bill, at the US Capitol in Washington, January 15, 2014. [Photo/Agencies]

WASHINGTON - US House of Representatives approved the 1 trillion US dollars spending bill Wednesday, which would keep the federal government open through 2014 fiscal year.

In a 359-67 vote, the bill cleared the House with strong support from both Republicans and Democrats.

The bill, unveiled by House Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers and his Senate counterpart Monday night, covers the entire federal discretionary spending for the 2014 fiscal year which ends on September 30.

It sets domestic program spending at 492 billion dollars and defense spending at 520 billion dollars for the current fiscal year, turning off part of the automatic spending cuts, known as the sequester.

The legislation fleshed out details of the budget deal brokered by Democrats and Republicans in December, following a 16-day partial government shutdown in October.

After the House vote, the Senate is expected to take up this bill by Saturday. Before that the federal government would remain operating under a three-day stopgap bill, which has been approved by both chambers to earn time to pass the omnibus spending bill.

In an agreement reached to end the government shutdown in the first half of October, the Congress allowed the government to be funded till January 15. So the interim bill was adopted to extend the deadline from January 15 to January 18 to avoid a government shutdown.