By Kristina Peterson and Louise Radnofsky 

WASHINGTON -- The House Thursday passed a $1.3 trillion spending bill that will fund the government until October, less than 24 hours after the sprawling bill was released.

The vote was 256-157. The legislation would lift spending for the military and a wide range of domestic program for the remainder of the fiscal year, which runs through September. Congressional leaders unveiled the 2,232-page bill around 8 p.m. Wednesday night, after weeks of intense wrangling over its policy details.

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) said the bill would reverse the military's "staggering readiness crisis" with an infusion of new military spending. "Today we begin to reverse that damage," he told reporters Thursday.

The bill now heads to the Senate, which has little time to pass it before the government's current funding expires at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. That could create some last-minute drama in the Senate, where a single senator can prevent the chamber from speeding up its time-consuming procedures.

Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.), whose objections to a two-year budget deal triggered a brief government shutdown last month, signaled Thursday he wasn't pleased with the process that had produced the spending bill.

Mr. Paul tweeted that his office printer had needed more than two hours to print the bill. "Well here it is, all 2,232 budget-busting pages. The House already started votes on it. The Senate is expected to soon. No one has read it. Congress is broken," Mr. Paul said.

Timing hurdles aside, the bill is expected to pass the Senate with bipartisan support. And President Donald Trump will sign the bill once it reaches his desk, top White House officials said Thursday, ending speculation that he would decline to do so amid objections from some Republicans over concessions made on immigration and other issues.

Mick Mulvaney, the president's budget chief, made the commitment in a hastily scheduled on-camera briefing. "Yes," he said in opening remarks, the president will sign it. "It does a lot of what we wanted" on immigration, Mr. Mulvaney added. "The president supports the bill" and "looks forward to signing it."

Democratic leaders applauded the bill's boost for domestic programs, including funding increases for the National Institutes of Health, Head Start and child-care programs, opioid research and treatment, veterans' health care and infrastructure.

The bill ends -- for now -- one of the most contentious fights between Democrats and Mr. Trump, by including $1.57 billion for construction of physical barriers on the border with Mexico and other security measures. Mr. Trump won funding for 33 miles of new fencing on the Texas border -- about half of what he requested. He also got funding for 60 miles of replacement or secondary fencing, which is built alongside existing barriers. That is more than he asked for but is also far less controversial.

"Got $1.6 Billion to start Wall on Southern Border, rest will be forthcoming," Mr. Trump said in a tweet late Wednesday. "Had to waste money on Dem giveaways in order to take care of military pay increase and new equipment."

Democrats won a number of concessions, particularly regarding immigration enforcement inside the U.S. The bill provides for minimal or no increases to enforcement officers and detention bed space and no punishments for sanctuary cities. In addition, the new border construction must use designs now in use, which rules out a solid concrete wall.

The spending bill includes some of the first legislative steps to rein in gun violence, after a string of recent mass shootings. The legislation includes a measure from Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas) to strengthen compliance with the national background check system for buying firearms. The bill would also end what gun-control advocates say has effectively been a ban on federal gun-violence research.

Write to Kristina Peterson at kristina.peterson@wsj.com and Louise Radnofsky at louise.radnofsky@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 22, 2018 13:21 ET (17:21 GMT)