Biden to back eleventh-hour funding bill

The White House has endorsed a revised bill funding the government, pledging to back the stopgap measure even as it blasted Republicans for reneging on an earlier bipartisan deal.

“President Biden supports moving this legislation forward and ensuring that the vital services the government provides for hardworking Americans," press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement Friday evening, "from issuing Social Security checks to processing benefits for veterans.”

The administration’s support came as the bill was poised to sail through the House, after House Democrats agreed to vote for the three-month funding package that includes disaster aid and a one-year farm bill extension.

That proposal was trimmed down significantly from an earlier bipartisan agreement, which President-elect Donald Trump tanked on Wednesday, triggering a scramble to avoid a government shutdown.

The White House and congressional Democrats maintained throughout the crisis that it was Republicans’ responsibility to resolve the impasse and keep the government open — and refused to back an earlier deal that would have stripped many provisions negotiated over the last few weeks.

But after the GOP abandoned an effort to raise the debt limit as part of the funding effort, something President-elect Donald Trump pushed for, Democrats opted to support Friday’s revised bill.

“While it does not include everything we sought, it includes disaster relief that the President requested for the communities recovering from the storm, eliminates the accelerated pathway to a tax cut for billionaires, and would ensure that the government can continue to operate at full capacity,” Jean-Pierre said in her statement.