After 41 days of unpaid federal workers, shuttered government agencies and mounting public pain, the Senate approved a funding package Monday night to reopen government, moving the country one step closer to ending the longest shutdown in American history.
But the lights in Washington aren’t back on just yet.
The legislation, approved in the Senate with the support of 52 Republicans and eight Democrats, combines three full-year spending bills with a stopgap measure to keep the rest of the government funded through Jan. 30. The package also reverses mass layoffs triggered during the shutdown and blocks additional firings through the duration of the continuing resolution.
The bill passed the Senate 60-40, with those eight senators who caucus with the Democrats — Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., Dick Durbin, D-Ill., John Fetterman, D-Pa., Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., Tim Kaine, D-Va., Angus King, I-Maine, Jackie Rosen, D-Nev., and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H. — joining all but one Republican, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, to support the legislation.
While the bill to reopen government still has to pass the House — and still needs President Donald Trump’s signature — the Senate was the tallest hurdle. In fact, even getting senators to expedite consideration, after a critical number of Senate Democrats showed on Sunday that they would vote with Republicans, was its own obstacle.
“I am grateful that the end is in sight,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said on the floor Monday. “But I would encourage every member of this body, Democrat or Republican, pro-bill or anti-bill, not to stand in the way of being able to deliver the coming relief quickly. The American people have suffered for long enough.”
Thune got his wish.
Senators agreed to speed up the process in their chamber on Monday in order to likely end the shutdown some time in the next couple of days.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told House Republicans on a members-only conference call Monday that he is aiming to clear the legislation on Wednesday, according to a source on the call who was granted anonymity to discuss the private plans. It will be the first day the House has held a legislative session since Sept. 19.
While House passage, of course, isn’t guaranteed, Republicans can advance the legislation without Democratic support. That’s a relief for House GOP leaders, since they are unlikely to draw more than a handful of votes from vulnerable Democrats in swing districts.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., has vowed to vote against the legislation and is pushing the rest of his caucus to oppose it as well, slamming the deal that a handful of Democrats crafted with Republicans because it omits any immediate action on the Obamacare subsidies.
In exchange for Democratic support, Thune agreed to allow a Senate vote on legislation to extend the expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies. But he offered no assurances about the outcome, and the measure — which would require 60 votes to advance — is widely expected to fail.
Throughout the shutdown, Democrats had insisted that any agreement to reopen the government include language addressing the expiring tax credits. They didn’t get that language — and lawmakers are now only one step away from solving the shutdown without addressing skyrocketing health care premiums.
If all House Democrats vote no on the funding bill, Republicans can only afford two GOP defections while still passing the legislation. But there’s another dynamic complicating passage in the House: Attendance.
With shutdown-inducted travel issues impacting airlines across the country, members could face delays and cancellations on their way back to Washington.
“We are urging you this morning to start finding your way here, right now,” Johnson told members Monday on the private GOP conference call, according to the source. “Get back to D.C.”
Senate passage of the funding package caps off a whirlwind six weeks in the Senate, which saw more than a dozen unsuccessful votes to open the government, plenty of intraparty fighting, and the rise and collapse — and rise again — of bipartisan talks.
But in many ways, the drama is just beginning.
For all the Democratic dissatisfaction over this shutdown deal, Democrats will have to quickly regroup to try to muster the support of 13 Senate Republicans to support an extension of the expiring Obamacare subsidies.
If Senate Democrats somehow win over enough Republicans, Democrats believe they could force a vote in the House — if not through political pressure on Johnson, then at least by a discharge petition.
It’s unlikely, however, that Senate Democrats will secure the support of so many Republicans on an Obamacare subsidy extension. And with Democrats seeming to walk away from the shutdown with little more than a show-vote, many Senate Democrats are still dumbfounded that eight of their colleagues would fold after last week’s resounding election results for Democrats.
“The people were on our side,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., posted on X. “We were building momentum to help save our democracy. We could have won — the premium increase notices were just starting. And giving in now will embolden him.”
“Things will likely get worse,” he said.
