After a tumultuous few days, President Biden on Saturday signed into law a spending bill that had been heavily trimmed down to 120 pages from 1,547. It had lost provisions targeting hidden fees on concert tickets and criminalizing the publication of some deepfake pornography.
But two of the measures that had been dropped from the final bill, which continued most government spending at the same level and included funding for disaster relief and aid to farmers, were salvaged as separate bills and passed by the Senate.
The bills, which include funding for pediatric cancer research and changes in the terms of the lease of a Washington, D.C., stadium, passed the House in the spring, allowing them to quickly clear the Senate without amendments and through a voice vote that required unanimous consent.
Here’s a rundown of how those two bills were revived at the last minute.
Funding for pediatric cancer research
When Speaker Mike Johnson jettisoned a bipartisan deal to avert a government shutdown after facing fierce criticism from the billionaire Elon Musk, right-wing Republicans and President-elect Donald J. Trump, Democrats decried the omission of four bills related to pediatric cancer research and treatments from the revised funding bill.
“Republicans would rather cut taxes for billionaire donors than fund research for children with cancer,” Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the Democratic leader, said Friday on social media.
But in the end, the Senate on Friday renewed the Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act, named after a 10-year-old girl who died from an inoperable brain tumor in 2013, in a unanimous vote. The bill extended $12.6 million in annual cancer research funding through 2031, allowing the National Institutes for Health to continue researching the biology of childhood cancer and structural birth defects.
But three other cancer-related measures were scrapped at the end of 118th Congress. Those include a new policy that would have made it easier for low-income children on Medicaid to cross state lines for specialized cancer treatment, and two bills aimed at incentivizing pediatric cancer drug development.
Control of Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium site
Mr. Musk also amplified an inaccurate claim that the spending bill would provide billions of dollars for an N.F.L. stadium in Washington.
But the stadium legislation, which passed the House in February, transfers administration of the site of Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium from the National Park Service to the District of Columbia. It does not provide funding for a stadium.
The Washington football team played at the site, just over two miles east of the Capitol, from 1961 to 1996, before moving to suburban Maryland. The franchise has been considering a move to Washington or Virginia as it nears the end of its current lease at the Maryland stadium formerly known as FedEx Field, often ranked by fans and players as one of the worst venues in the N.F.L.
The bill gives Washington administrative jurisdiction over 174 acres of the land under a renewable 99-year lease that also allows for the construction of residential and commercial buildings. But the federal government would still own the land.
Senate passage of the stadium bill early on Saturday revived hope for a new home for the Washington Commanders in the nation’s capital.
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