The longest government shutdown in history is almost over after the House of Representatives on Wednesday evening passed a continuing resolution to fund the government.
The bill passed the lower chamber by a vote of 222 to 209. The measure would fund the entire government at least through Jan. 30, while three appropriations bills attached to the continuing resolution that will fund segments of the government for the rest of fiscal year 2026.
All that’s left to end the government shutdown is President Donald Trump’s signature, which the White House said would be affixed to the bill Wednesday night.
Republicans Declare Victory Despite Continued Frustration with Democrats
In Washington, Republicans are rejoicing that the government shutdown will end without giving major concessions to Democrats.
“For over six weeks, Democrats held our country hostage over demands for healthcare for illegal aliens and to prove to their base they could ‘stand up’ to President Trump,” said Republican Study Committee Chairman Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas.
“The Republican Study Committee stood firm in rejecting any extension of COVID-era insurance subsidies that fuel fraud and drive up costs for American families, and in preventing Democrats from using the Christmas holidays to force a wasteful omnibus through Congress. Let me be clear: Democrats gained nothing from their shutdown while hardworking families paid the price. Now, it is time to get back to governing and delivering on the mandate we were given by the American people last November,” Pfluger continued.
While Republicans have nearly ended the shutdown without major concessions, their frustration for Democrats shutting down the government is still palpable.
“The Democrats [were] openly saying that they were leveraging the pain of the American people, all Americans, … to try to win a battle that they got nothing for, and they wasted all this time for us to get something done,” Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla., told reporters before Wednesday’s vote.
“The Democrat Party has proven to put politics over people,” Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., told The Daily Signal.
“The only thing the Democrat Party got [out] of this 40 plus day shutdown, [is] scaring the crap out of people, causing the most food security in the United States since the Great Depression,” Van Orden contended.
Van Orden is concerned that Democrats could pull a similar stunt come January. “They changed the date on the CR so yes, I’m very concerned that the Democrat party was going to repeat history and do whatever the hell they possibly can to gain political power,” he added.
While concerns percolate over another shutdown come January, some House conservatives are relieved the bill will avert the possibility of Congress getting jammed with a Christmas-season omnibus package.
“We’ve been advocating for a yearlong CR, but the thing that this CR to the end of January does is it relieves us of the old, historic, traditional Christmas omnibus [bill] that everybody loads up with a wish list,”Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, told The Daily Signal on Monday, referring to the congressional custom of hastily passing massive funding packages right before breaking for Christmas. “So this takes us past that, which is a very good deal.”
The legislation to fund the government passed the Senate this past Monday, overcoming the opposition of 38 Senate Democrat Caucus members including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. They were joined by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who caucuses with the Democrats. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was the only Senate Republican to not support the bill.
In addition to funding the entire government until Jan. 30, the legislation also provides funding for the full fiscal year to the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the FDA, the operations of Congress, and military construction projects.
The legislation will also bring the thousands of federal workers who have been furloughed back to work. These nonessential and essential federal workers have not received a paycheck since the shutdown began, but will receive backpay after the shutdown officially comes to an end.
Congress Looks to Find Healthcare Solutions
Democrats withheld their support for funding the government, which entered a shutdown on Oct. 1, over expiring COVID-era enhanced Obamacare subsidies. Republicans sympathized with rising healthcare costs but objected to the Democrats’ tactics of holding government funding hostage to extend the subsidies. The Senate deal that broke the shutdown gridlock promised a group of Senate Democrat Caucus members a future vote on the subsidies.
But, without reforms, the subsidies have little hope of passing as many Republicans argue that these subsidies are propping up an ineffective and unaffordable healthcare system.
“I mean, here’s what Republicans want: actual affordable, reliable, high quality health care. Democrats want power, and if you can’t see that now, if you don’t report that, then you’re not doing the job,” Van Orden explained.
“It’s turned out to be the UCA, the Unaffordable Care Act, because everything that was said … about driving up cost, lessening affordability, lessening access, all that’s come true,” Hern said.
“We should look at how we’re going to lower costs without having to inject more federal dollars into it. The federal work ought to be able to lower the health care costs for all Americans,” the Oklahoma congressman added.
“We got to come up with a good health care plan, which we’re working on now—freedom caucus is,” Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., told The Daily Signal.
“We’ve got to come up with an overall health care system. Obamacare doesn’t work,” the South Carolina congressman added.
When asked if there could be a bipartisan deal to extend the temporarily Covid-era enhanced Obamacare subsidies, House Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., expressed concern that Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., would not support such a measure.
“I’m very concerned that even if the Senate came up with a deal that they could agree with that speaker Johnson won’t bring it to the floor, but we have the American people behind us, and we’re going to keep standing up,” Clark told the press.
In the middle of the vote, Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., reflected on Democrats’ position after the longest shutdown ever, telling The Daily Signal, “We certainly made healthcare the issue and cost of living the issue, but now we have to fight to really show people that we’re going to deliver.” Khanna has called for new Democrat leadership in the Senate after his party’s acquiescence.
