The Senate on Monday night, November 10, 2025, approved a bill to fund the federal government until January, marking the end of the longest government shutdown in US history.
The bill, which passed with a vote of 60-40 and with support from a few Democratic senators and almost all Republicans, will be sent to the House of Representatives. If it also passes the House, the bill will go to President Donald Trump for his signature and approval into law.
Mike Johnson is playing with fire
Trump stated earlier on Monday that he supports the funding agreement, which was the product of negotiation between Republicans and a group of moderate Senate Democrats, nearly six weeks after the shutdown began on October 1.
House Speaker Mike Johnson told Republican members earlier on Monday that he wants them to start traveling to Washington to vote on the deal. Members were informed that votes on the agreement could begin as early as 4 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on Wednesday.
Before the Senate vote, Johnson refused to commit to the agreement's main guarantee to Democrats: that Congress would hold a separate vote in December on the potential extension of the enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies. This vote would be on a bill chosen by Democrats, according to the Senate agreement.
"I'm not committing to that, nor am I refusing to accept it," Johnson told CNN.
These subsidies, which are set to expire at the end of December, help reduce the cost of individual health insurance plans for more than 20 million Americans.
Democrats swallow their anger
Until Sunday night, when the Senate passed the first stage of the newly negotiated agreement, Democratic senators, almost without exception, refused to vote in favor of opening the government because the original Republican bill in the House did not include the extension of the ACA tax credits.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, angrily condemned the deal on Sunday night because it did not ensure that the subsidies would remain in effect until 2026, as many Americans will find their premiums much more expensive without them.
The Senate deal provides for funding the government until the end of January, reversing all federal employee furloughs related to the shutdown, and guarantees that all federal workers will be paid normally for the duration of the shutdown.
The agreement also includes provisions for a bipartisan budget process and prevents the White House from using continuing resolutions to fund the government. Continuing resolutions have been repeatedly used to avoid a government shutdown but are controversial, as they often excuse lawmakers from the need to make decisions about the long-term funding of the government, which would be resolved with a regular budget.
Payments are coming
The agreement will also fund, until September, the SNAP program, which helps 42 million Americans secure food through food stamps.
According to a federal law passed in 2019, federal employees who are furloughed during a shutdown must be paid for the time they were absent from work at their regular rate of pay "on the earliest date possible, regardless of scheduled pay dates."
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