The Senate on Thursday passed the initial part of a $1.4 trillion spending package to fund the government through the rest of the fiscal year.

The Senate on Thursday passed the initial part of a $1.4 trillion spending package to fund the government through the rest of the fiscal year.

Senators voted 71-23 on the first measure, which totals $534.4 billion. They're expected to vote on the remaining bill later Thursday.

After that they'll send the legislation to President Trump's desk. White House officials have indicated he will sign the bills before the end of the day Friday when current funding expires.

The House on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed the pair of bills, with the first passing on a 297-120 vote and the second passing 280-138.

"The politics of gun violence are literally shifting beneath our feet," said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). "The small steps forward on gun safety in this budget bill - including the funding for research I fought for and secured - are really good news. But we can't stop here."

The second part of the package includes funding for homeland security; defense; commerce, science and justice; and financial services and general government.

The homeland security bill includes $1.375 billion for physical barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border, the same amount included in the fiscal 2019 bill. It also leaves the number of detention beds for Immigration and Customs Enforcement flat, and, in a win for the White House, imposes no restrictions on Trump's use of emergency powers to reprogram defense funds toward his wall.

The border wall has become a perennial sticking point in the government funding negotiations during the Trump era. A protracted fight over the border wall led to a record 35-day partial shutdown that started in December 2018 and ended with Trump declaring a national emergency to win more money.

Fiscal conservatives railed against the bill before its passage, but with the packages loaded up with priorities for both parties their opposition wasn't enough to endanger the funding measure.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) blasted negotiators for pretending that they weren't basically passing an omnibus.

"Leaders and appropriators have cleverly put the negotiated spending agreement into two bills so that we can all pretend that it's better than just one," he said. "Even though they were negotiated at the same time, released to the public at the same time and will be voted on within only minutes of each other."

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) added in a video that the spending deal was a "pile of trash," while Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) compared the spending bill to the first time he tried "supreme pizza."

"There were some things that I really, really didn't like in that bite," he added. "There are some things in these bills coming up ... that I just cannot support."