Trump signs spending bill to avoid gov't shutdown

WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump on Friday signed an 854-billion-US-dollar spending bill to avoid a government shutdown before the new fiscal year begins on Monday.

The bill, approved by the Congress earlier this week, would provide the US Departments of Defense, Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education with the funding for the full fiscal year ending on Sept. 30, 2019, as well as two months' funding for other government agencies.

"The signing of this legislation marks a drastic turnaround in the way we have funded the government in recent years," Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby said Friday in a statement.

"As of today, 75 percent of the government is funded - on time and through an open, bipartisan process," he said.

Trump had expressed frustration that the bill did not provide enough funding for his proposed wall along the US-Mexico border, threatening to force a government shutdown.

But Republican leaders had warned the president that a shutdown could be damaging to the Republican Party in the weeks leading up to the November midterm elections.

In a statement released by the White House, Trump said that he was "pleased" to have signed this bill into law while blaming Democrats for refusing to support border security.

"Unfortunately, the radical Democrats refuse to support border security and want drugs and crime to pour into our country," said the president.

Combined with an earlier legislation, Trump has signed into law almost 1 trillion dollars in government spending for fiscal year 2019, according to local media.