House passes bill to end longest government shutdown after 43 days

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives narrowly approved a measure Wednesday night to end the longest-ever government shutdown after more than six weeks, without concessions to Democrats who demanded negotiations over skyrocketing health insurance premiums. 

The stopgap spending bill, which funds the government through the end of January, was approved by a vote of 222-209 after an hour of debate. It was set to immediately head to the desk of President Trump, who said he supports it, for his signature.

The federal government is expected to start reopening immediately, ending the longest shutdown in U.S. history after 43 days.

Furloughed federal workers are expected to return to their jobs in the coming days and critical workers like air traffic controllers will receive back pay for the weeks they worked without receiving paychecks.

However, air travel is expected to slowly recover after a few days of significant disruptions, including thousands of delayed and canceled flights.

It’s remains unclear how quickly SNAP recipients may receive the food assistance they expected to get on Nov. 1. The Trump administration has fought in court to avoid paying the benefits that roughly 42 million Americans rely on.

Republicans held a six-vote majority early Wednesday but that shrank to five after Arizona Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva was sworn in some 50 days after she won a special election to fill her late father’s seat.

The race remained tight as a handful of moderate Democrats, including Adam Gray of California and Jared Golden of Maine, crossed the aisle and backed the bill to reopen the government and end increasing pain from the shutdown.

Other Democratic leaders, bracing to lose the vote, announced a separate plan to force a vote on their proposal to extend tax credits for Obamacare health insurance plans before the end of the year through a legislative maneuver requiring the support of a majority of members.

Wednesday’s approval by the House came after the funding bill passed the Senate earlier this week, with seven Democrats and one Democratic-backing independent crossing the aisle to support the Republican measure while only winning the promise of a future Senate vote on the Obamacare issue.

Progressives are livid at what they see as capitulation to Republicans, especially after voters rebuked the GOP in off-year elections last week.

“We’re talking about a coordinated effort … to break with the entire Democratic Party in exchange for nothing,” said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). “It’s about … our ability to fight, or not.”

The government shutdown began Oct. 1 after Democrats balked at supporting a Republican stopgap spending bill unless the GOP negotiated over the health insurance credits.

In the Senate, moderates John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Catherine Cortez-Masto (D-Nev.) and Angus King (I-Maine) originally broke with their party. Five additional Democrats switched sides last weekend, producing the breakthrough.

The Democratic rebels, all of whom are retiring or not up for reelection in next year’s midterms, said they relented to spare the nation from worsening pain, including missed paychecks for government workers and looming travel chaos as the holidays approach.

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