Democrats and Republicans back measure to keep government running through September, with Donald Trump expected to sign bill

The US Senate on Thursday gave final legislative approval to a $1.2tn spending bill to keep the government open through September, a measure Donald Trump is expected to sign before Friday’s deadline.

Senators from both the Republican and Democratic parties voted in favor of the bill, which passed 79 to 18 in Trump’s first major legislative accomplishment – though it was far from the victory he had once hoped for, providing only minimal changes to spending levels.

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Under the compromise measure, the Pentagon’s funding increased, a priority that had been laid out by Republicans and Trump. It also funded Democratic priorities, including healthcare subsidies. Only Republicans voted against the measure, with some citing the lack of spending cuts and the need to provide more widespread systemic changes to government.

“This bill is far from perfect, but it’s better than how we are spending our money today, better than how we were spending our money a year ago,” the Republican senator Roy Blunt said on the Senate floor.

Democrats also claimed victory in the passage of the legislation, arguing that it failed to fund Trump’s priorities, including money to build a wall along the US-Mexico border. Additionally, the bill funds subsidies for healthcare coverage provided through the Affordable Care Act, Barack Obama’s signature domestic legislation.

The spending bill does not include many of the spending cuts on domestic programs Trump had sought and adds $2bn for the National Institutes of Health, $295m for Puerto Rico’s underfunded Medicaid healthcare for the poor and $407m for firefighting in western states.

The legislation adds $12.5bn in defense spending. It makes $2.5bn more available after Trump gives details on his plans for fighting the Islamic State militant group.

The bill was approved months after the 1 October deadline to pass government funding for the fiscal year. For the past seven months, federal agencies have been operating mainly on simple extensions of the previous year’s funding and the priorities that came with that.