The Senate voted 60-40 on Monday night to pass a funding package that would reopen the federal government, breaking a shutdown that has lasted 41 days and become the longest in American history. The bill now goes to the House of Representatives, where a final vote is expected on Wednesday evening.
The vote did not reopen anything on its own. Until the House passes the same bill and President Donald Trump signs it, federal workers remain unpaid, food aid stays in limbo and the government stays shut. What Monday night did was clear the hardest hurdle: the Senate, where a weeks-long standoff had blocked every earlier attempt.
Eight Democrats broke ranks to pass it
The breakthrough came from a small group of senators who negotiated a deal over the weekend with Senate Majority Leader John Thune and White House officials. A procedural vote on Sunday night first cracked the deadlock, and the same eight members of the Democratic caucus stuck with Republicans for final passage on Monday.
They are Dick Durbin of Illinois, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Tim Kaine of Virginia, Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen of Nevada, and Angus King of Maine, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats. Most other Democrats voted no, including Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, who argued the deal gave up too much. The negotiators said the country could not wait any longer: the shutdown began on October 1, and its effects now reach from airport security lines to food assistance offices in every state.
What the government shutdown bill actually funds
The package is built in two parts. A stopgap measure funds most of the federal government at current levels through January 30, 2027, buying Congress about eleven more weeks to finish full-year spending bills. Attached to it are three full-year bills that fund their areas through September 30: the Agriculture Department, including the Food and Drug Administration; the Department of Veterans Affairs and military construction; and the legislative branch, which is Congress itself.
One provision matters to millions of households right away. SNAP, the food assistance program used by about 42 million lower-income Americans, is fully funded through the end of the fiscal year, so benefits do not depend on the next round of negotiations. The bill also reverses the Trump administration’s firing of furloughed federal workers during the shutdown and guarantees back pay for the hundreds of thousands of employees who have worked, or waited, without a paycheck for more than a month.
The health care fight was postponed, not settled
The one thing the deal does not do is the thing Democrats spent six weeks demanding. It does not extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies that help millions of people pay for health insurance, and those subsidies expire at the end of December. Without an extension, premiums for many plans are expected to jump in the new year.
In exchange for dropping that demand for now, Thune promised that the Senate will vote on extending the subsidies no later than the second week of December. It is a promise of a vote, not a promise of a result: the extension would still need 60 votes in the Senate and a path through the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson has made no commitment. Both parties are already treating that December vote as the next big fight in Washington.
What happens next: the House vote on Wednesday
The bill’s next test comes in the House, which has not been in session since September 19. The House Rules Committee advanced the measure after a hearing that ran more than six hours, with every Republican on the panel supporting it and every Democrat opposed. Johnson has told lawmakers to return to Washington and has said publicly that he expects the bill to pass, though the Republican majority is narrow and the vote could be close.
If the House approves the bill on Wednesday evening, it goes straight to the president’s desk. Trump has endorsed the deal and is expected to sign it quickly, which would let agencies reopen within hours and start the process of back pay for federal workers. It would also cap an extraordinary week in Washington, the same week Stephen Miller took over as Trump’s chief of staff. Follow the vote and the reaction as it happens in our News coverage.
Sources: Associated Press; Reuters; Fox News reporting on the Senate vote, the House Rules Committee hearing and the expected Wednesday vote.