For the 41st day, the United States government remains partially shuttered. Yet late Sunday night, a faint light appeared in Washington’s long corridor of dysfunction.
Eight Senate Democrats joined Republicans to advance a short-term spending measure, setting in motion the first real steps toward reopening the federal government — and igniting an intraparty storm over the cost of compromise.
The procedural vote passed 60 to 40 on Nov. 9, breaking a deadlock that had frozen pay for hundreds of thousands of federal workers and left millions of Americans facing hunger and health care uncertainty. The rare Sunday session ended in applause on the Senate floor as weary lawmakers exhaled at the possibility of an end in sight.
Those who voted with Republicans — including Democratic Sens. Tim Kaine (Va.) and Dick Durbin (Ill.), Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), Maggie Hassan (N.H.), John Fetterman (Pa.), Catherine Cortez Masto (Nev.), Jacky Rosen (Nev.), and Independent Angus King (Maine)— argued that the monthlong shutdown had become untenable.
“This was the only deal on the table,” Shaheen said. “A lot of people are being hurt.”
King called the compromise “a win for the American people,” while Kaine noted that the measure guaranteed a vote on extending Affordable Care Act tax credits, even if not a guaranteed outcome.
But their decision drew fury from the party’s progressive wing.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer emerged from a tense evening caucus declaring, “I’m voting no.”
He called the measure’s failure to address the health care crisis “so severe, so urgent, so devastating for families back home” that he could not support it in good faith.
“America is in the midst of a Republican-made health care crisis worse than anything the American people have seen in decades,” he said on the Senate floor.
Outside the chamber, Senator Bernie Sanders was sharper still.
“It would be a horrific mistake to cave in to Trump right now,” he said before the vote. “The American people cannot afford a doubling of their health care premiums. They can’t afford to lose their Medicaid, which 15 million people would. If Democrats cave on this issue, what it will say to Donald Trump is that he has a green light to go forward toward authoritarianism.”
The spending agreement, a continuing resolution, would fund the government through January and reverse layoffs of federal employees.
It would also guarantee back pay for those furloughed and ensure funding for programs like SNAP that had been suspended during the shutdown.
However, it leaves intact the expiration of health care tax credits at the end of the year, which analysts warn will sharply raise insurance premiums for millions of Americans.
House Democrats, led by Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, have already signaled resistance.
“Donald Trump and the Republican Party own the toxic mess they have created in our country, and the American people know it,” Jeffries said in a statement. “We will not support spending legislation that fails to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits.”
Next Steps for the Government After the Senate Deal
The deal’s path forward remains uncertain.
The House, which has not met since September, must still reconvene to approve the Senate’s version before it can reach President Trump’s desk.
Even then, one senator could slow the process through procedural objections, a reality Schumer hinted at when he told reporters, “Ask Rand Paul,” a jab at the Kentucky Republican who was the lone member of his party to vote no.
As the standoff drags on, frustration deepens beyond Capitol Hill. Federal workers are still waiting for paychecks. Food banks from Maryland to Hawaii are overwhelmed by families once supported by federal assistance. Airport lines stretch as unpaid TSA staff call out sick.
The government, for now, remains closed.
But Washington, bruised, divided, and weary, inches toward a fragile reopening, one vote at a time.
“There was zero chance of dealing with the Affordable Care Act issue as long as the shutdown continued,” King emphasized. “In the meantime, a lot of people are being hurt.”
Sen. Ankit Jain, one of the District’s shadow senators, explained next steps about the senate vote, after a concerned government worker wondered if she should report to work Monday morning post Sunday’s vote.
“They are voting to consider the House-passed bill, which they will then have to amend, then they will have to overcome a filibuster on the amended bill, then actually pass the bill; then the House will have to pass the amended bill,” Jain explained Sunday evening. “So it’s going to take a few days.”
District’s Shadow Rep. Oye Owolewa, said that while he appreciates the work happening to reopen the government, he told The Informer he is “extremely concerned that there’s no guarantee on the extension of ACA subsidies,” before offering a chilling warning.
“Without [ACA subsidies],” Owolewa said, “Americans will see their health care costs soar, more people will lose their insurance and American lives will be unnecessarily lost.”