A proposal that would end the worst government shutdown in American history was passed by the U.S. Senate on Monday, ending a weeks long impasse that has caused millions of people to lose their food benefits, left hundreds of thousands of federal employees unpaid, and hampered air travel.
Nearly all of the chamber's Republicans and eight Democrats, who had tried in vain to tie government financing to health subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year, supported the 60-40 vote.
The agreement does not ensure that the subsidies, which benefit 24 million Americans, would continue, even though it sets up a vote on them in December.
The agreement would halt President Donald Trump's drive to reduce the size of the federal workforce, banning any layoffs until January 30, and restore funding for federal agencies that legislators permitted to expire on October 1.
After that, it will go to the Republican controlled House of Representatives, where Speaker Mike Johnson has stated that he hopes to pass it by Wednesday and submit it to President Trump for ratification. The agreement to reopen the government has been referred to by Trump as "very good."
As a result of the agreement, the federal government would continue to add roughly $1.8 trillion annually to its $38 trillion debt until January 30.
The agreement has infuriated many Democrats, who point out that there is no assurance that the Republican controlled Senate or House would agree to extend the health insurance subsidies.
This comes just one week after Democrats won high profile elections in New Jersey and Virginia and elected a Democratic socialist as the next mayor of New York City.
"We wish we could do more," stated Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, the second ranking Democrat in the chamber. "The government shutdown appeared to be a chance to improve policies, it was ineffective.
According to a late October Reuters/Ipsos poll, 43% of Americans blamed Democrats for the shutdown, while 50% blamed Republicans. Monday's report of progress on an agreement to reopen the government helped to boost U.S. markets.
Trump has violated Congress's constitutional power over economic concerns by unilaterally cutting federal payrolls by hundreds of thousands of employees and canceling billions of dollars in spending.
Some Democrats have questioned why they would support any future spending agreements that violate previous spending laws enacted by Congress. There don't seem to be any explicit safeguards in the agreement to stop Trump from implementing more expenditure cutbacks.
In order to prevent any potential delays in the event that Congress shuts down the government once more during that period, the agreement would finance the SNAP food subsidy program through September 30 of next year.
