Dome of U.S. Capitol building. (AP Photo.)

(CNSNews.com) – Congress approved a $245-billion “minibus” appropriations bill on Thursday night, which covers funding for several federal departments, and includes another continuing resolution (CR) to keep the government going through Dec. 16, and continues to provide funds for ObamaCare and Planned Parenthood.

The federal government has been operating on a continuing resolution since Oct. 5 because the budget passed by the Republican-controlled House in April went nowhere in the Senate. Also, the Senate Democrats -- who have controlled the Senate since January 2009 -- have not produced a budget in over 930 days, almost three years.

The CR attached to the minibus bill did not contain language to shut off funding for ObamaCare or Planned Parenthood, or other programs opposed by conservatives.

There is $105.5-billion in automatic funding to implement ObamaCare being disbursed on a schedule dictated in the law, which was passed last year. In addition, the abortion business Planned Parenthood continues to receive funding from Congress. In 2009, its most recent annual report, Planned Parenthood took in $363.2 million from government sources – 90 percent of that money came directly from the federal government or from Medicaid, a federal-state program.

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, joined by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Va., right, and House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy of Calif., behind, fourth from right, arrives to meet with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2011, following a Republican strategy session. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The House vote on the minibus and CR was 298-121, with 165 Democrats and 133 Republicans voting for the bill. The Senate vote was 70-30, with all 51 Democrats, two liberal Independents, and 17 Republicans voting in favor of the bill. Unlike in the House, more Republicans voted against the bill in the Senate than voted for it.

In the House, only 101 Republicans voted against the spending bill, while 133 voted for it.

The exact amount of this latest CR, which funds government through Dec. 16, is impossible to determine because such legislation is written to allow government agencies to spend whatever money they need to carry out their normal operations until the law expires. Because federal spending differs from month-to-month, there is no precise way to determine the future cost of a short-term CR.

However, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the government spent $286 billion in the month of October under the previous CR. Figures for November are not yet available because the CBO keeps a month-by-month tally.

The $245-billion “minibus” bill combines three separate spending bills to fund the Departments of Agriculture, Justice, Commerce, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development for fiscal year 2012. The bill also funds NASA and the National Science Foundation. (Fiscal Year 2012 began on Oct. 1, 2011 and ends on Sept. 30, 2012.)

According to a summary paper released by the House Appropriations Committee, the minibus bill allocates approximately $244.9 billion in both mandatory and discretionary funds, and $2.3 billion in emergency disaster relief.

However, because mandatory funding, such as the food stamp program, is not decided by the Appropriations committees in either chamber of Congress, the bill technically only spends $127.9 billion, plus the $2.3 billion in emergency disaster aid. This is because mandatory programs are funded separately, usually through the legislation that created them.

The current CR, enacted on Oct. 5, expired on Nov. 18. If a new CR was not passed by then, or both Houses had not passed the rest of their appropriations bills, the government would have been forced to shut down.