From [HERE] After moments of high drama, dry process and acrimony, the Senate passed a sweeping $1.1 trillion spending package Saturday night, abruptly ending several days of chaotic legislative maneuvers and clearing the bill for President Obama to sign.

The legislation, which will fund most of the government through the fiscal year that ends in September, passed in a bipartisan vote, 56 to 40 — a turbulent, fitting coda for a governing body that has often failed to govern.

The vote concluded a long day of brinkmanship, spurred by a legislative challenge to Mr. Obama’s executive action on immigration by Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, who forced the Senate into a weekend session. By the end of the day, Mr. Cruz found himself isolated even from members of his own party.

Throughout the day, grim and grumpy lawmakers — many of whom had been forced to cancel holiday plans — trudged to the Capitol to cast a monotonous series of more than two dozen procedural votes. (At one point, Democrats wheeled a piano into a spare room off the Senate floor, where they sang carols including, perhaps optimistically, “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.”)

The turmoil and infighting offered a glimpse into the dynamic between the two parties as well as the tensions among Republicans that are likely to erupt after they take control of the Senate in January.

In addition to funding core domestic government operations, the bill provides money for more military operations abroad and for combatting the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.