WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP/WSVN) — President Donald Trump signed off on a nearly $1.4 trillion spending bill that included a measure giving military members their largest pay raise in 10 years.
White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere said Trump signed the legislation aboard Air Force One, Friday, as he traveled to his Mar-a-Lago resort, where he will be celebrating Christmas and New Year’s.
I will be signing our 738 Billion Dollar Defense Spending Bill today. It will include 12 weeks Paid Parental Leave, gives our troops a raise, importantly creates the SPACE FORCE, SOUTHERN BORDER WALL FUNDING, repeals “Cadillac Tax” on Health Plans, raises smoking age to 21! BIG!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 20, 2019
The spending measures, which will add roughly $400 billion to the deficit over 10 years, include money for the president’s U.S.-Mexico border fence, pay raises for military and civilian federal workers, and federal funding for election security grants.
The 3.1% pay raise is the largest since 2010, where the increase was 3.4%.
The massive spending measures were made public last week and headed off a repeat of last year’s end-of-the-year impasse that led to a 35-day partial government shutdown. That showdown stemmed from Trump’s demand that Congress sign off on nearly $6 billion in funding for the border wall.
Hundreds of thousands of government workers were furloughed or forced to work without pay during the shutdown. Trump skipped his holiday vacation and remained in Washington through the impasse.
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