Lawmakers reach $1.1 trillion government spending deal

Legislators will close out 2014 by actually avoiding a government shutdown. They reached agreement Tuesday on a $1.1 trillion government-wide spending bill, congressional aides told The Associated Press.
The final spending bill, formed after months of negotiations, will delay the battle over President Obama's new immigration policy until 2015. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) predicted the bill will pass later this week with strong bipartisan support, according to The Washington Post.
The bill should be officially released later Tuesday night.
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Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.
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