Congress passed a temporary resolution to keep the government funded beyond the midnight deadline, until the full agreement can be completed and passed next week.
Most notably, a Supreme Court ruling last year strengthened companies' ability to use mandatory arbitration, a dispute-resolution process designed to keep consumer cases out of court.
He argued early on that this was an action by Nato, covered by a UN resolution, and suggested that he did not need to do any more than keep Congress informed.
Republicans went to great lengths to try to avoid a vote on the Democratic "Moms" resolution, although they argued that they were trying to keep irrelevant debate from delaying the pending military construction spending bill.