WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The longest government shutdown in U.S. history could end this week after a compromise that would restore federal funding cleared an initial Senate hurdle late on Sunday, though it was unclear when Congress would give its final approval.
The deal would restore funding for federal agencies that lawmakers allowed to expire on October 1, bringing welcome relief to low-income families that have seen food subsidies disrupted, hundreds of thousands of federal workers who have gone unpaid for more than a month, and travelers who have faced thousands of canceled flights.
It would extend funding through January 30, leaving the federal government for now on a path to keep adding about $1.8 trillion a year to its $38 trillion in debt.
President Donald Trump’s Republicans hold majorities in both chambers of Congress, but Democrats used rules that require 60 of the 100 senators to agree on most legislation, in a push for an extension of health insurance subsidies for 24 million Americans that are due to expire at the end of the year. The Senate compromise would set up a December vote on that measure.
Coming a week after Democrats won high-profile elections in New Jersey, Virginia and elected a democratic socialist as the next mayor of New York City, the Sunday votes by eight moderate Democrats to advance the deal provoked anger among many in the party who noted there was no guarantee that the healthcare vote would pass the Senate or House of Representatives.
“We wish we could do more,” said Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, the chamber’s No. 2 Democrat. “The government shutting down seemed to be an opportunity to lead us to better policy. It didn’t work.”
A late October Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 50% of Americans blamed Republicans for the shutdown, while 43% blamed Democrats.
U.S. stocks rose on Monday, buoyed by news of progress on a deal to reopen the government.
MODERATE DEMOCRATS BROKER DEAL
Sunday’s deal was brokered by Democratic Senators Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen, both from New Hampshire, and Senator Angus King, an independent from Maine, said a person familiar with the talks.
Trump has unilaterally cancelled billions of dollars in spending and trimmed federal payrolls by hundreds of thousands of workers, intruding on Congress’ constitutional authority over fiscal matters. Those actions have violated past spending laws passed by Congress, and some Democrats have questioned why they would vote for any such spending deals going forward.
The deal does not appear to include any specific guardrails to prevent Trump from enacting further spending cuts.
However, it would stall his campaign to downsize the federal workforce, prohibiting him from firing employees until January 30.
It also would fund the SNAP food-subsidy program through September 30 of next year, heading off any possible disruptions if Congress were to shut down the government again during that time.
Many steps remain before the deal can become law.
The Senate must first reach a bipartisan agreement to move quickly towards a final vote. Otherwise, the chamber would require much of the coming week to move through procedural actions before voting on final passage, possibly extending the shutdown into next weekend.
HOUSE UP NEXT
The Republican-controlled House must also sign off on the bill, and Trump would need to sign it into law.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has kept his chamber out of session since September, said Monday he wants to vote as quickly as possible on the deal.
“It appears to us this morning that our long national nightmare is finally coming to an end,” Johnson told reporters.
A White House official speaking on condition of anonymity described the deal as a “positive development.”
Should the government remain closed for much longer, economic growth could turn negative in the fourth quarter, especially if air travel does not return to normal levels by the November 27 Thanksgiving holiday, according to White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett.
(Reporting by Richard Cowan, Andy Sullivan and Katharine Jackson; Additional reporting by Katharine Jackson, David Shepardson, Courtney Rozen and Trevor Hunnicutt; Writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Scott Malone and Alistair Bell)
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