Senate Passes Bill to End US Government Shutdown
The U.S. Senate has passed a bill to end the nation’s longest government shutdown, restoring federal funding and halting layoffs until January 30.
The U.S. Senate on Monday approved a deal that will end the longest government shutdown in American history, breaking a weeks-long stalemate that had halted food benefits for millions, left hundreds of thousands of federal workers without pay, and disrupted air travel.
The bill passed by a 60-40 vote, with support from nearly all Republicans in the chamber and eight Democrats who had unsuccessfully tried to link government funding to health subsidies set to expire at the end of the year. While the agreement clears the way for a vote in December on those subsidies, which benefit 24 million Americans, it does not guarantee their continuation.
The deal will restore funding to federal agencies that lawmakers allowed to lapse on October 1 and will halt President Donald Trump's campaign to reduce the size of the federal workforce, preventing any layoffs until January 30.
It will now go to the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, where Speaker Mike Johnson has said he hopes to pass it by Wednesday and send it to Trump to be signed into law. Trump called the agreement to reopen the government "very good."
The deal extends funding until January 30, allowing the federal government to continue adding approximately $1.8 trillion annually to its current $38 trillion debt.
Coming a week after high-profile Democratic victories in New Jersey and Virginia and the election of a Democratic Socialist as the next mayor of New York City, the deal has angered many Democrats, who say there is no guarantee that the Republican-controlled Senate or House will agree to extend the health insurance subsidies.
"I wish we could have done more," said Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, the chamber's No. 2 Democrat. "The government shutdown seemed like an opportunity to move us toward better policy. But that didn't happen." A Reuters/Ipsos poll in late October found that 50% of Americans blamed Republicans for the shutdown and 43% blamed Democrats.
U.S. stock markets rose on Monday on news of progress toward a deal to reopen the government.
Trump has unilaterally canceled billions of dollars in spending and cut the federal payroll by laying off millions of employees, interfering with Congress's constitutional authority over financial matters. These actions violated previous spending laws passed by Congress, and some Democrats have questioned why they would vote for any future spending deal.
The deal does not include any specific provision that would prevent Trump from making further spending cuts.
However, the deal will fund the SNAP food-subsidy program through September 30 of next year, avoiding any potential disruption if Congress were to shut down the government again during that time.
Reporting by Richard Cowan, Andy Sullivan and Nolan D. McCaskill; additional reporting by Katharine Jackson, Jasper Ward, David Shepardson, Courtney Rose and Trevor Hunnicutt; writing by Andy Sullivan; editing by Scott Malone and Lisa Shumaker
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