WASHINGTON, D.C. – After 43 days, the longest government shutdown has ended. The President just signed the bill Wednesday night after Americans spent weeks witnessing congressional members fight across the aisle.
On a 222-to-209 vote, the House passed the Senate version of the continuing resolution. It only took 43 days to get here and we’ve seen the impact and headaches this shutdown has caused: flight cancellations, federal workers missing paychecks, to SNAP payments not going out to beneficiaries, this shutdown has caused stress in almost every corner. Both sides are still pointing the finger at each other.
Democrats said the Trump administration was inflicting cruelty on the American people during the shutdown by trying to halt full federal funding for food stamps. Democrats tried to hold their position on including an extension of the enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies, but a handful of Democrats in the Senate joined Republicans to approve this funding bill without those healthcare provisions. Those Democrats claimed this was the best deal they could get for now to reopen the government and then later work on the ACA, which will expire by the end of the year. Some said it will cause premiums to increase.
Republicans are pointing the finger at Democrats for the shutdown. They said their funding measure would’ve kept funding levels the same until they worked out a more long-term deal later on.
On the Hill, Rep. Jack Bergman (R- MI) said he doesn’t want to do any more short-term deals like this moving forward.
“We need to get back to a full year appropriations,” said Rep. Bergman. “We need to fund the government for a year at a time because anytime you do short term anything. Short term plans yield short term results, which leads to a greater chance of failure. Longer term planning, especially fiscally, needs to occur more here in DC.”
This bill will fund the government through the end of January. It also includes separate spending bills related to military construction, legislative agencies and making sure that SNAP is fully funded through most of 2026.
