Senate Republicans break Democratic standoff, paving the way to end US government shutdown

Thirty-nine days and 20 hours had passed since the start of the longest partial government shutdown in U.S. history when the spark of an agreement ignited in the Capitol. It was around 7:00 p.m. on Sunday when the first reports arrived that Democrats and Republicans had reached a preliminary understanding in the Senate to reopen the flow of federal funding, which had been cut off since October 1.

After 14 failed votes, a new proposal — presented hours earlier by Senate Republicans, led by John Thune — managed to convince eight Democratic senators, among them the negotiators Tim Kaine (Virginia), Angus King (Maine), and Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan (New Hampshire). With their support, the conservative bloc (which holds 53 seats, plus one dissident, the veteran Rand Paul of Kentucky) reached the 60 votes required to achieve the qualified majority demanded by the Senate’s filibuster rules to pass major decisions — such as budgetary ones.

This agreement does not mark the definitive end of the shutdown, which this time has suspended the food stamp program for millions of people in need, pushed thousands of federal workers — deprived of their pay — into food lines, and caused chaos in airports across the country. It is rather the beginning of the end of the shutdown.

There were still three extraordinary votes to be held in the Senate before the end of a day that would normally be one of rest on Capitol Hill, but which made an exception on Sunday due to the circumstances. After that, the pact will move to the House of Representatives for ratification and then to U.S. President Donald Trump for his signature. That process could take several days.

The agreement, whose details remain somewhat unclear, guarantees federal government funding until January 30. Then, if the discord between both parties persists, the fight could return to square one and trigger a new shutdown.

The budget proposal includes a provision that Democrats had sought: the reinstatement of federal employees dismissed during the shutdown, along with a guarantee that there will be no more mass layoffs until the end of January. It also eliminates Trump’s earlier threat that federal workers would not receive, as is customary, retroactive pay for the wages they missed during these 40 days. In addition, it funds the food stamp program through the end of 2026.

Left out, however, is the Democrats’ major goal: preventing the expiration at year’s end of the Affordable Care Act, the health subsidy program created during the pandemic as part of the law known as Obamacare. Sunday’s deal only includes the Republicans’ commitment to hold a separate vote in Congress on that issue — a vote that, given the current balance of power, is highly unlikely to pass.

Trump versus the insurers

Trump’s stance on the ACA hasn’t helped. Over the weekend, the U.S. president proposed on his social network, Truth Social, that the ideal solution would be to give Obamacare money directly to citizens, bypassing what he called “money sucking insurance companies.” In recent days, Trump has also been especially insistent that his allies in the Senate eliminate the filibuster. In the end, that wasn’t necessary.

On Friday, Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer presented his own proposal to reopen the flow of public spending. His condition was a one-year extension of ACA subsidies so that, from that point, negotiations could proceed with the government reopened — something Thune had been demanding for weeks.

“We need Republicans to just say yes,” Schumer urged. But they immediately replied no. On Sunday, in a Senate speech, the Democratic leader announced that he would not support the latest Republican proposal because it does not do enough to address the crisis in American healthcare.” “Because of Republicans, Americans are going to suffer immensely as this health care crisis gets worse,” he said.

“And make no mistake about it, the American people know who is inflicting this healthcare trauma on them: Donald Trump and the Republicans,” Schumer added, predicting that Americans “will remember Republican intransigence every time they make a sky-high payment on health insurance.”

Five of the eight Democratic senators who ultimately decided to vote with the Republicans justified their decision in a joint press conference. “This bill is not perfect, but it takes important steps to reduce their shutdown’s hurt,” said Durbin in a statement. The Democrats also argued that securing a separate vote on the ACA program would serve to expose Republicans before voters.

The decision by these senators to break the unity their party had maintained over nearly 40 days has sparked yet another internal crisis in the party — one that comes just days after the brief joy of sweeping electoral victories in New York, New Jersey, Virginia, and California last week. Those wins had been a shot of confidence, coming exactly one year after Kamala Harris’s crushing defeat to Trump in the 2024 presidential election.

Everything suggests that the agreement was accelerated by the decision of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) early Friday morning to order the cancellation of hundreds of flights at the nation’s 40 main airports to cope with the air traffic overload caused by absences or resignations among controllers — federal employees affected by the government shutdown. On Sunday alone, more than 1,600 flights were canceled, and delays continued to mount on the third day of a measure with few precedents.

The administrative freeze has shut down or severely reduced the operations of dozens of federal agencies due to lack of funds. Nearly 13,000 air traffic controllers and thousands of airport security workers have not been paid since October 1. Many have decided to take leave to find other sources of income to cover household expenses.

Another consequence of the shutdown has been the battle between the Trump administration and Democrats — with interventions from a couple of federal judges and, ultimately, the Supreme Court — over the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), vital for 42 million Americans. The government fought tooth and nail to avoid paying benefits starting last week. This Sunday, it emerged that it had even ordered states to recover the money they had spent on food stamps during the judicial tug-of-war.

There are 750,000 federal employees suspended without pay, who feared that the ordeal might drag on until just before Thanksgiving (which this year falls on November 27). They followed Sunday’s news from the Capitol with understandable interest. Others — air traffic controllers among them — are considered essential and are required to continue working, but without pay.

Dozens of museums, monuments, and national parks have been forced to close their doors or operate without supervision or basic services such as trash collection. If Sunday’s tentative agreement holds, the government could reopen in the coming days — once they regain the public funding lost amid the feud between Democrats and Republicans.

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