President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed legislation ending the longest government shutdown in US history, roughly two hours after the House of Representatives voted to restart disrupted food assistance, pay hundreds of thousands of federal workers, and revive a hobbled air traffic control system.
The Republican-controlled chamber passed the package by a vote of 222–209, with Trump’s backing largely keeping his party unified in the face of vehement opposition from House Democrats, who were angered that a long standoff led by their Senate colleagues failed to secure a deal extending federal health insurance subsidies.
Trump’s signature on the bill, which cleared the Senate earlier in the week, will bring federal workers idled by the 43-day shutdown back to their jobs as early as Thursday, though how quickly full government operations will resume remains unclear.
The measure extends funding through January 30, keeping the government on track to add about $1.8 trillion a year to its $38 trillion national debt.
“I feel like I just lived a Seinfeld episode. We just spent 40 days and I still don’t know what the plotline was,” said Republican Representative David Schweikert of Arizona, likening Congress’s handling of the shutdown to the misadventures in the 1990s sitcom.
“I really thought this would be like 48 hours: people will have their piece, they’ll get a moment to have a temper tantrum, and we’ll get back to work,” he said. “What’s happened now when rage is policy?”
The shutdown’s end offers hope that air travel services will stabilise before the busy Thanksgiving holiday period two weeks away. The restoration of food aid to millions of families may also ease household budgets as the Christmas shopping season ramps up.
It also means the imminent return of key US economic data, after statistical agencies were forced to suspend reports. The absence of data had left investors, policymakers, and households largely in the dark about the state of the job market, inflation, and consumer spending.
Some data gaps, however, may be permanent. The White House said employment and Consumer Price Index reports covering October might never be released.
Economists estimate the shutdown shaved more than a tenth of a percentage point from gross domestic product each week, though most of the lost output is expected to be recovered in the coming months.
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No promises on healthcare
The vote came eight days after Democrats scored several high-profile election victories that they believed strengthened their leverage to extend health insurance subsidies set to expire at year’s end.
While the deal sets up a December Senate vote on the subsidies, House Speaker Mike Johnson has made no such promise in his chamber.
Democratic Representative Mikie Sherrill, who was recently elected governor of New Jersey, used her final House floor speech before resigning to urge colleagues to resist the Trump administration.
“To my colleagues: Do not let this body become a ceremonial red stamp for an administration that takes food away from children and rips away healthcare,” Sherrill said. “To the country: Stand strong. As we say in the Navy, don’t give up the ship.”
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No clear winner from shutdown
Despite the recriminations, neither party emerged with a clear victory. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released Wednesday found that 50% of Americans blamed Republicans for the shutdown, while 47% blamed Democrats.
The vote came on the Republican-controlled House’s first day back in session since mid-September, after a long recess aimed at pressuring Democrats. The chamber’s return also restarted efforts to force a vote on releasing all unclassified records related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein an effort House Democrats advanced on Wednesday.
Speaker Johnson also swore in Democrat Adelita Grijalva, who won a September special election to fill the Arizona seat of her late father, Raul Grijalva. Her signature provided the final vote needed for the petition to move forward.
After fulfilling its constitutional duty to fund the government, the House could soon again be drawn into controversy over Epstein, whose 2019 death in prison continues to fuel conspiracy theories.
The funding package also includes a provision allowing eight Republican senators to seek damages over alleged privacy violations during the federal investigation into the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. It retroactively makes it illegal in most cases to obtain a senator’s phone data without disclosure and allows those affected to sue the Justice Department for $500,000 in damages, plus legal fees and costs.
(FRANCE 24 with Reuters)
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