Trump signs funding bill ending longest government shutdown after House approval

WASHINGTON – The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bill to fund the government through January and end the longest shutdown in U.S. history.

The bill passed with a largely party-line vote of 222 to 209, with six Democrats in favor and two Republicans against.

President Donald Trump later signed the legislation in the Oval Office, clearing the way for federal workers to be paid and for millions of Americans to receive a monthly federal food benefit payment that was delayed by the shutdown.

And Democrats in Congress will basically get nothing.

AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

The shutdown began last month after Senate Democrats refused to vote for a core funding bill, demanding that Republicans agree to address expiring health insurance subsidies. Republicans said no, offering only the promise of a Senate vote that will almost certainly fail.

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans gave themselves something of an advantage, with a provision in the bill that could pay certain senators millions of dollars in damages by a Justice Department investigation into his phone records.

Senate Republicans’ blatant self-dealing sparked bipartisan displeasure among House members and led House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to promise a quick vote next week to repeal the provision.

The House could have removed the provision before Wednesday’s vote, but doing so would have required the Senate to vote again, likely prolonging the shutdown given that senators have already left Washington.

“Last night we made the call to go ahead and proceed with it despite our reservations, but we will approve something independently, we will send it [to] “It’s absolutely absurd that they put that there.”

There is no promise that the Senate will take up the separate House bill. A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R.S.D.) did not respond to a request for comment, and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R.S.C.) announced Wednesday that he plans to take advantage of the new law, saying he would sue the government for more than $1 million.

House Democrats introduced new legislation Wednesday to expand expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies, without which some 20 million households will face higher health insurance premiums next year. It’s unclear whether enough Republicans will support a compromise bill to pass the House, or whether President Johnson would even allow a vote.

“We believe that working-class Americans, middle-class Americans and everyday Americans deserve the same level of certainty that Republicans always provide to the rich, the well-off and the well-connected,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday, deploying the affordability talking points that Democrats used throughout the funding impasse.

Polls suggested that more voters blamed Republicans for the shutdown, and Democrats won massively in off-year elections last week, raising hopes of a strong showing in next year’s midterm elections. But not all Democrats seemed optimistic Wednesday.

“We have federal workers across the country who have been missing their paychecks. [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] beneficiaries, millions of them across the country, whose access to food security was at risk, and we have to find out what that was for,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) told reporters.

Ocasio-Cortez noted that the Trump administration had appealed court orders to pay November SNAP benefits all the way to the Supreme Court, an action seen as A political error by some analysts.. Senate Democrats said they were unwilling to let food aid recipients go hungry, but Ocasio-Cortez said Trump’s refusal to pay food benefits made it even more ridiculous for Senate Democrats to give in.

“We cannot allow this kind of cruelty with our cowardice,” he said.