Earlier this afternoon, President Trump signed the FY 2018 omnibus bill passed by Congress into law. After passage in the House yesterday afternoon, the bill was passed in the Senate in the wee hours of Friday morning.
President Trump issued a tweet Friday morning in which he threatened to veto the omnibus bill over concerns about the absence of protections for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and the lack of full funding for a border wall between the US and Mexico. However, the President relented about four hours after issuing the tweet, saying that he had decided to sign the bill because it provides much-needed funding for the military, including a pay increase for troops and new equipment.
With the passage and signing of the omnibus bill, Congress narrowly avoided a third government shutdown of the year, and can now turn their full attention to FY 2019 appropriations.
For NWA’s summary of what the omnibus bill means for WIC and other nutrition programs, please see our blog post from yesterday. Members of Congress are heading out today for their two-week spring recess, and will return to Washington, DC on Monday, April 9.