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WASHINGTON. – Negotiators in the US Congress have reached agreement on a US$1-trillion-dollar spending bill that would keep the federal government open through the 2014 fiscal year. The bill covers the entire federal discretionary spending for the 2014 fiscal year, which ends on September 30. It fleshes out details of the budget deal brokered by Democrats and Republicans in December, following a 16-day partial government shutdown in October.

The deal allows government discretionary spending to rise from caps set by the sequester to about 1,012 trillion dollars in the 2014 fiscal year and 1,014 trillion dollars for the 2015 fiscal year, providing about 63 billion dollar relief to the automatic spending cuts. The newly unveiled bill sets domestic program spending at US$492 billion and defense spending at US$520 billion for the current fiscal year.

“The Consolidated Appropriation Act of 2014 is the product of bipartisan, bicameral compromise,” Senator Barbara Mikulski, chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a statement.

“I’m pleased that this agreement includes all 12 appropriations bills. For the first time since 2011, no mission of our government will be left behind on autopilot,” she added.

A final passage of the bill is expected in the weekend, and before that a three-day stopgap bill will be needed to keep the government open beyond Jan. 15. In an agreement reached to end the government shutdown in the first half of October, the Congress allowed the government to be funded till January 15. -Xinhua.