Donald Trump has signed legislation funding an end to the longest government shutdown in the United States. The US President signed the law to resume federal activities after the House of Representatives passed the bill with a vote of 222 to 209.
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The longest government shutdown in US history ended Wednesday more than 43 days after the House of Representatives passed a bill agreed to by Republicans and a breakaway group of Democratic senators, The Guardian writes.
The compromise sets the stage for the U.S. government to return to normal operations in January, leaving unresolved the issue of the expiration of tax breaks for the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare health care programs that most Democrats have demanded be extended as part of any deal to reopen the government.
After it was announced over the weekend, the Senate passed the compromise on Monday and the House followed suit two days later with 222 votes in favor and 209 against, including two senators who abstained. Donald Trump signed the bill Wednesday night, saying: “We are sending a clear message that we will never give in to extortion, because that is what the Democrats have tried to ask our country to do.”
Six Democrats broke from their party to vote for the bill: Adam Gray of California, Tom Suozzi of New York, Marie Glesenkamp Perez of Washington, Don Davis of North Carolina, Henry Cuellar of Texas and Jared Golden of Maine. Two Republicans, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Greg Steube of Florida, voted against it.
“The Democratic shutdown is finally over, thanks to Republicans in the House and Senate,” the House Republican leader said in a statement. “There is now absolutely no doubt that the Democrats are responsible for millions of American families going hungry, millions of travelers stuck in airports and our service members leaving wondering if they will get their next paycheck.”
Speaking on the House floor just before the vote, Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries vowed to continue pushing for the subsidy extension.
“This fight is not over yet. We have just begun,” he said. “Either the Republican Party finally decides to extend the Affordable Care Act tax cuts this year, or the American people will dump the Republican Party next year and end Donald Trump's presidency once and for all. That's how this war will end.”
As The Guardian recalls, the spending deadlock has become the biggest fight between Democrats and Republicans in Congress since Trump returned to the White House earlier this year. It led to unprecedented disruptions to government services, with the Trump administration ordering cuts to passenger air travel across the country and suspending the largest federal food assistance program for the first time in history.
Reeling from last year's election defeat, Democrats used the September deadline to tackle health care, which has been the party's top issue for the past decade and a half. The Obamacare tax break was created during Joe Biden's presidency and reduces premiums for those enrolled in plans purchased under the law, The Guardian writes.
Democrats want them extended as part of any deal to continue government funding. The party has made other demands, including limiting Trump's use of benefits to cut funding previously authorized by Congress and reversing cuts to the Medicaid program that Republicans passed earlier this year. But as the fight continued, it became clear that the main goal was to increase subsidies.
Republicans, who control both the House and Senate, have introduced a counterproposal that would fund the government through the third week of November without any spending cuts or major policy changes. They pushed the bill through the House with the support of just one Democrat, but the minority used Senate intervention to block its passage.
The shutdown began on October 1, leading to layoffs of about 700,000 federal workers. Hundreds of thousands of others, from active duty military to law enforcement officers and airport security officers, are still working without pay.
Russell Vought, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, who is known for his hostility to the federal workforce, took advantage of the lack of funding to order more government layoffs. He also cut funding for infrastructure projects in states that voted for Kamala Harris last year.
While Trump ordered military pay, which many experts say may be illegal, other federal employees have yet to receive their salaries. Food banks have begun reporting increased need as the shutdown continues, with demand increasing after the White House suspended payments from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or food stamps, citing a lack of government funding.
Last week, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy ordered a reduction in the number of flights at US airports, saying air traffic controllers were facing an unprecedented workload after weeks of unpaid work. In the following days, flights were canceled on a large scale.
In the Senate, most Democrats have stuck to the party's strategy for weeks. Senate Majority Leader John Thune received 14 votes for the Republican funding measure, but only three members of the minority voted to support it.
Democrats won special elections in early November, won the governor's races in Virginia and New Jersey by significant margins and won voter approval for new congressional maps in California that will help the party's candidates.
Democratic leaders said the victory validated their strategy in the race for funding, and Trump echoed that claim, saying “the shutdown was a big factor” in the GOP's poor performance. He began pressing Republican senators to abandon the filibuster, which would eliminate the 60-vote threshold needed to pass spending legislation in the 53-seat Republican-held House.
Meanwhile, a small group of moderate members of the Senate Democratic caucus negotiated a compromise to end the shutdown. As a result, the government is funded through January and layoffs that the Trump administration ordered after the shutdown began to be rescinded.
But it does not include additional funding for tax breaks under the Affordable Care Act—instead, Thune agreed to hold a vote on the issue in mid-December. It's unclear whether it has the Republican support needed to pass, and Mike Johnson, the House speaker, has not yet said he will put any legislation up for a vote.
Despite fierce opposition from both House and Senate Democrats, the Senate passed it Monday by 60 votes: eight for Democratic lawmakers and the rest for Republicans.
However, the battle for subsidies is unlikely to end. Plan participants received notices of premium increases in November due to the end of the tax break. One study predicts they will increase by an average of 26%, potentially pushing them to unacceptable levels for many people.
With government funding set to expire at the end of January, Democrats could take the opportunity to once again ask for a subsidy extension.
“Over the past few weeks, dozens of House Republicans have said they know this is an issue that needs to be addressed,” Jeffries said in an interview with CNN on Tuesday. “And now we're going to have to see some action or is this just talk from the Republicans in the House because the Democrats are going to continue to be in the arena as it relates to solving the health care crisis that the Republicans have brought on the American people.”
