The Senate on Monday evening approved a measure aimed at funding the federal government until January and terminating the longest shutdown recorded in U.S. history.
The measure passed with a vote of 60-40, receiving bipartisan backing from several Democratic senators and nearly all Republicans, and will be forwarded to the House of Representatives.
If the House approves, the measure will go to President Donald Trump for enactment.
Earlier on Monday, Trump expressed that he endorses the funding agreement, a result of negotiations between Republicans and a group of moderate Senate Democrats, nearly six weeks post the shutdown’s onset on October 1.
House Speaker Mike Johnson urged GOP members to travel to Washington, D.C., for a vote on the agreement earlier on Monday.
Members were informed that voting on the agreement could commence by 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday.
Prior to the Senate vote, Johnson withheld a commitment to the major assurance made to Democrats: that Congress will conduct a separate vote in December regarding a potential extension of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies. This vote would pertain to a bill designated by the Democrats per the Senate arrangement.
“I’m not committing to it or not committing to it,” Johnson, R-La., stated on CNN.
The subsidies, which are set to lapse at the end of December, assist in lowering the costs of individual health insurance plans for over 20 million Americans.
Until Sunday night, when the Senate endorsed the initial phase of the recently negotiated agreement, Democratic senators, for the most part, refrained from voting to reopen the government due to the absence of ACA tax credit extensions in the original House Republican bill.
Chuck Schumer, the Senate Minority Leader, condemned the agreement vehemently on Sunday night for failing to secure the continuation of the subsidies into 2026, as many Americans would encounter much higher insurance costs without them.
The Senate agreement proposes to fund the government until the end of January; reverse all layoffs caused by the shutdown of federal workers; and assure that all federal employees will receive their usual salaries during the shutdown period.
The agreement also consists of measures for a bipartisan budget strategy and hinders the White House from relying on continuing resolutions for government funding.
Continuing resolutions have been frequently employed to avert government shutdowns but are contentious because they often prevent lawmakers from confronting long-term funding challenges that a standard budget would address.
Additionally, the agreement aims to fund the SNAP program, which aids in providing food for 42 million Americans via food stamps, until September.
A federal law enacted in 2019 mandates that government workers furloughed during a shutdown must be compensated for the period they were not employed at their standard pay rate “at the earliest possible date, regardless of predetermined pay dates.”
— CNBC’s Emily Wilkins contributed to this report.
