{"id":284276,"date":"2025-11-11T00:45:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T00:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/284276\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T00:45:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T00:45:08","slug":"senate-nears-passage-of-bill-to-reopen-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/284276\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate nears passage of bill to reopen government"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The Senate began its final votes Monday evening on legislation to reopen the government, bringing the longest shutdown in history<\/a> closer to an end after a small group of Democrats<\/a> struck a deal with Republicans.<\/p>\n

The shutdown could last a few more days as members of the House, which has been on recess since mid-September, return to Washington to vote on the legislation. President Donald Trump has signaled support for the bill, saying Monday that \u201cwe\u2019re going to be opening up our country very quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senators began debate on the bill just past nightfall. Senate Majority Leader John Thune set up a series of procedural votes and said he hoped final passage would take \u201chours not days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaker Mike Johnson urged lawmakers to start returning to Washington \u201cright now\u201d given shutdown-related travel delays, but he said he would issue an official notice for the House\u2019s return once the Senate passes the legislation. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to do this as quickly as possible,\u201d Johnson said at a news conference. He has kept the House out of session since mid-September, when the House passed a bill to continue government funding. <\/p>\n

After weeks of negotiations, the moderate Senate Democrats<\/a> agreed to reopen the government without a guaranteed extension<\/a> of health care subsidies, angering many in their caucus who have demanded that Republicans negotiate with them on the Affordable Care Act tax credits that expire Jan. 1. Thune, R-S.D., promised a mid-December vote on the subsidies, but there was no guarantee of success. <\/p>\n

In a possible preview, the Senate voted 47-53 along party lines Monday not to extend the subsidies for a year. Majority Republicans allowed the vote as part of a separate deal with Democrats to speed up votes and send the legislation to the House. <\/p>\n

Stalemate ends after five Democrats switch votes <\/p>\n

A group of three former governors \u2014 New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan and Independent Sen. Angus King of Maine \u2014 broke the six-week stalemate on Sunday when they agreed to vote to advance three bipartisan annual spending bills and extend the rest of government funding until late January. <\/p>\n

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York has voted against moving ahead with the package, along with most of his Democratic colleagues. <\/p>\n

The legislation includes a reversal of the mass firings of federal workers by the Trump administration since the shutdown began on Oct. 1. It also protects federal workers against further layoffs through January and guarantees they are paid once the shutdown is over. <\/p>\n

In addition to Shaheen, King and Hassan, Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, home to tens of thousands of federal workers, also voted in favor of moving forward on the agreement. Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat, Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman and Nevada Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen also voted yes. <\/p>\n

The moderates had expected a larger number of Democrats to vote with them as 10-12 Democratic senators had been part of the negotiations. But in the end, only five switched their votes \u2014 the exact number that Republicans needed. King, Cortez Masto and Fetterman had already been voting to open the government since Oct. 1. <\/p>\n

The agreement includes bipartisan bills worked out by the Senate Appropriations Committee to fund parts of government \u2014 food aid, veterans programs and the legislative branch, among other things. <\/p>\n

Many Democrats call the vote a \u201cmistake\u201d <\/p>\n

Schumer, who received blowback from his party in March when he voted to keep the government open, said he could not \u201cin good faith\u201d support it after meeting with his caucus for more than two hours on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will not give up the fight,\u201d Schumer said, adding that Democrats have now \u201csounded the alarm\u201d on health care. <\/p>\n

Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who caucuses with the Democrats, said giving up the fight was a \u201chorrific mistake.\u201d Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., agreed, saying that voters who overwhelmingly supported Democrats in last week\u2019s elections<\/a> were urging them to \u201chold firm.\u201d <\/p>\n

House Democrats swiftly criticized the Senate. <\/p>\n

Texas Rep. Greg Casar, the chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said a deal that doesn\u2019t reduce health care costs is a \u201cbetrayal\u201d of millions of Americans who are counting on Democrats to fight. <\/p>\n

Others gave Schumer a nod of support. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries had criticized Schumer in March after his vote to keep the government open. But he praised the Senate Democratic leader on Monday and expressed support for his leadership throughout the shutdown. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe American people know we are on the right side of this fight,\u201d Jeffries said Monday, pointing to Tuesday\u2019s election results. <\/p>\n

Health care debate ahead <\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear whether the two parties would be able to find any common ground on the health care subsidies before a promised December vote in the Senate. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has said he will not commit to bringing it up in his chamber. <\/p>\n

On Monday, Johnson said House Republicans have always been open to voting to reform what he called the \u201cunaffordable care act\u201d but again did not say if they would vote on the subsidies.<\/p>\n

Some Republicans have said they are open to extending the COVID-19-era tax credits as premiums could skyrocket for millions of people, but they also want new limits on who can receive the subsidies and argue that the tax dollars for the plans should be routed through individuals. <\/p>\n

Other Republicans, including Trump, have used the debate to renew their yearslong criticism of the law and called for it to be scrapped or overhauled. <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writers Seung Min Kim, Michelle Price, Stephen Groves and Kevin Freking contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The Senate began its final votes Monday evening on legislation to reopen the government, bringing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,12801,1927,8634,9286,53215,3505,12,793,3138,9292,150169,12481,149851,127282,19862,9283,2077,127281,13410,2804,3,111,11166,18907,8638,9293,795,3438,21,792,19,22,20,25,24,800],"class_list":["post-284276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-angus-king","tag-ap-top-news","tag-bernie-sanders","tag-charles-schumer","tag-chris-murphy","tag-district-of-columbia","tag-donald-trump","tag-general-news","tag-government-and-politics","tag-government-shutdown","tag-greg-casar","tag-hakeem-jeffries","tag-jacky-rosen","tag-jeanne-shaheen","tag-john-fetterman","tag-john-thune","tag-legislation","tag-maggie-hassan","tag-mike-johnson","tag-new-hampshire","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-richard-durbin","tag-subsidies","tag-u-s-democratic-party","tag-u-s-government-shutdown","tag-u-s-news","tag-u-s-republican-party","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-government","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-washington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}