Senate votes to reopen government, sending funding bills to House

By Thérèse Boudreaux
The Center Square

After spending nearly seven weeks in a political deadlock, U.S. senators finally passed legislation to end the record-long government shutdown.

Eight senators in the Democratic Caucus provided the filibuster-breaking votes for the legislation – a Continuing Resolution paired with three full-year funding bills – to pass the chamber.

The package now heads to the Republican-controlled House for approval and then the president’s desk, meaning the government will likely reopen by the end of the week.

The funding deal includes the CR, which extends previous government funding levels until Jan. 30, and a minibus of three appropriations bills that fully funds Military Construction and Veterans Affairs; Agriculture-FDA-Rural Development; and the Legislative Branch for fiscal year 2026.

The CR will give lawmakers time to pass the remaining nine appropriations bills that would ensure the rest of federal agencies are funded for the entire fiscal year, which started Oct. 1.

It also reverses the Trump administration’s Reduction-In-Force actions during the shutdown and forbids future mass layoffs of federal workers for as long as the CR remains in effect.

Crucially, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has promised Democrats a vote on extending the enhanced Obamacare Premium Tax Credit by mid-December.

Democrats triggered the record-long government shutdown and continuously filibustered attempts to end it over those subsidies. Democratic leaders demanded that any funding deal include a renewal of the pandemic-era PTC expansion, and Thune’s promise of a vote on the subsidies hardly guarantees an extension.

But for eight senators in the Democratic Caucus, the concessions were enough to gain their support for the funding deal.

Sens. John Fetterman, D-Pa.; Angus King, I-Maine; and Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev.; had already voted with Republicans to reopen the government for the past few weeks. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H.; Maggie Hassan, D-N.H.; Tim Kaine, D-Va.; Jacky Rosen, D-Nev.; and Dick Durbin, D-Ill; joined them in both Sunday’s procedural vote and Monday’s vote on final passage.