US House approves $1.1tn budget bill

The US House of Representatives passed a $1.1 trillion (880 billion euros) budget late on Thursday, just hours before the government was due to shut down.

In a bid to stave off shutdowns of federal agencies, the US Senate approved a two-day extension of government funding on the same evening.

The Senate passed the measure by a voice vote shortly after the House of Representatives approved it, with President Barack Obama expected to sign it into law shortly afterwards.

The two-day funding bill will now give the Senate time to approve a $1.1 trillion bill which was narrowly passed by the US House of Representatives with a vote to 219 to 206.

Republicans who led the financial measure won control of both House and Senate in elections last month. In a rare public rebuke of Obama, Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said she was "enormously disappointed" he had decided to embrace the bill, which she described as an attempt at legislative blackmail by House Republicans.

If approved by the Senate, the bill will operate most government programs through to the end of the current fiscal year on September 30, 2015, except for Homeland Security, which will have its funding extending only until February 27. Funding will also be provided to fight "Islamic State" (IS) militants in Iraq and Syria and to combat Ebola in West Africa.

Also included in the bill is a cut to the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency of $60 million and measures to "rein in regulatory overreach."

One of the more controversial aspects of the 1,603-page bill was a measure to increase the amount an individual person can contribute to a national political party from $32,400 to $324,000.

ksb/jm (Reuters, AP, AFP)