Forty days into the longest government shutdown in history, eight members of the Senate Democratic Caucus bucked Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to support a deal that will end the government shutdown.
Lawmakers voted 60 to 40 to advance a House-passed clean continuing resolution (CR) Sunday night that had previously failed to clear the Senate’s 60-vote threshold 14 times. Though the deal marks a crucial breakthrough to reopen the government, the process is expected to take several days due to likely opposition from a number of senators to expedite a vote on final passage.
Any agreement will also have to clear the House of Representatives, which has been in recess since Sept. 19.
Democratic Sens. Tim Kaine of Virginia, Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire and Jacky Rosen of Nevada flipped their votes to support the House-passed CR. Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois, the second-ranking Democrat who is not running for reelection, also supported the measure.
The five Democrats joined their fellow caucus members, Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Independent Sen. Angus King of Maine, who repeatedly voted with Republicans to fund the government throughout the record-breaking shutdown fight.
Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff, who is widely viewed as the most vulnerable Democratic incumbent running for reelection in 2026, voted with Schumer to oppose the shutdown deal.
In the coming days, Senate Majority Leader John Thune is expected to offer a substitute to the House-passed continuing resolution that would include the prongs of the bipartisan framework.
The deal extends government funding levels through the end of January 2026, advances three full-year appropriations bills and funds a federal food aid program through fiscal year 2026. The agreement also reverses the mass layoffs of federal workers implemented by the Trump administration during the shutdown.
King, Hassan and Shaheen were reportedly responsible for negotiating the bipartisan deal with Republicans to bring an end to the 40-day funding lapse.
The breakthrough comes after Thune kept the Senate in session over the weekend in an effort to hasten an end to the shutdown. The funding lapse forced a vast swath of federal employees to miss paychecks, threatened millions of Americans’ access to food stamps and disrupted air travel in major hubs across the country.
King, who caucuses with Democrats, told reporters prior to the vote that the “length of the shutdown” led the group of Democrats to support the shutdown deal. The Maine Independent also said Republicans’ refusal to negotiate on extending enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies slated to expire at the end of December while the government was shut down also forced Democrats’ hands.
“The question was, as the shutdown progresses, is a solution on the ACA [Affordable Care Act] becoming more likely? It appears not,” King told reporters. “And I think people are saying we’re not going to get what we want, although we still have a chance, because part of the deal is a vote on the ACA subsidies.”
Many of King’s Democrat colleagues railed against the bipartisan agreement, arguing the legislation was inadequate because it failed to guarantee an extension of the ACA subsidies.
“I cannot in good faith vote for a show vote that does nothing to guarantee that 24 million Americans get the health care they deserve,” Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego, a potential 2028 presidential candidate, wrote on X.
“[V]oting for Trump’s continuing resolution – without any protection against his health care cuts or his growing illegality – is a mistake,” Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, another Democrat who could make a run for president in 2028, wrote on X. “I voted NO.”
The Democratic National Committee, left-wing activist organizations and a large chunk of House Democrats, including Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, voiced their opposition to the deal Sunday evening. Democratic candidates running for Senate during next year’s midterm elections and rumored 2028 presidential candidates also came out against the deal, citing its insufficient language on health care.
Thune has offered Democrats a vote on extending the ACA subsidies as part of the shutdown deal. However, the vote is likely to fail due to deep opposition among Republicans to an ACA subsidy extension without significant reform.
Republicans are not about to further burden taxpayers by blindly extending a flawed program,” Thune said on the Senate floor Saturday.
House GOP leadership will give lawmakers 36 hours notice to return to Washington upon the Senate passing a stopgap bill to reopen the government.
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