The Senate on Thursday night passed a $1.5 trillion budget bill to fund the government through the end of September after months of back and forth between lawmakers. The Senate voted 68–31 to pass the bill, which will fund the federal government through Sept. 30, with 18 Republicans joining all Democrats voting in support. The billion-dollar spending package had earlier been passed by the House on Wednesday night. Its passing means the government will avert a shutdown that would have started on Friday night, when funding runs out. The bill now heads to President Joe Biden’s desk where he is expected to sign the measure into law before Friday night. Among other things, the bipartisan spending measure contains emergency funding requested by the White House to provide humanitarian and security assistance to Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion, which has forced millions of Ukrainians to flee their homes. Specifically, it contains $13.6 billion in emergency funding to support the people of Ukraine, split …