It took five months for the $1.5 trillion federal appropriations bill to surface after the United States’ fiscal year began on Oct. 1, 2021, but only hours for the U.S. House—and less than a day for the U.S. Senate—to adopt it on March 9 and 10.
The massive omnibus package is a continuing resolution, not a budget, as Congress hasn’t adopted an annual budget since 2016. It includes a $46 billion increase or 6.7 percent boost for non-defense programs, a $42 billion, 5.6 percent increase in defense allocations, and $13.6 billion in supplemental appropriations to aid Ukraine.
