After a narrow victory last week in the House of Representatives and a much easier victory in the Senate, Presdient Obama was finally able to sign into law his $106 billion war bill.
The bill contained virtually everything the president sought in his initial bill for $83.4 billion, with tens of billions of additional money added by Congress for things like IMF funding and subsidizing the purchase of new cars.
One thing Congress did excise from the initial request was the funding for closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, though this could hardly be called a defeat for the administration as the White House praised the decision and restarted the military tribunals at the facility.
The bill took nearly three months to pass through Congress, and saw major challenges in the House of Representatives, where Democrats concerned at the continuation of the wars and Republicans irked at the large number of non-military additions to the bill nearly defeated it. Even among those who voted for the bill, there was considerable disquiet. There was expected to be similar opposition in the Senate, though it never materialized.