Updated 10:13 a.m., Oct. 17 — After a bitter 16-day government shutdown and just hours before the Treasury Department's debt ceiling deadline, the House passed the Senate's bipartisan deal to reopen the government and extend the nation's borrowing limit, sending the measure to the president. The chamber voted 285-144 late Wednesday night on the Senate-negotiated fiscal package, with 198 Democrats voting "yes" and 144 Republicans voting "no." Democratic votes carried the package to passage, considering only 87 of 232 GOP lawmakers voted to extend both government funding and the debt ceiling. All Democrats who were present voted for the deal. Earlier in the evening, the Senate voted 81-18 to pass the bill, and President Barack Obama made a statement shortly after the Senate vote to say he would immediately sign the bill. “We’ll begin reopening our government immediately, and we can begin to lift this cloud of uncertainty and unease from our businesses and from the American people,” Obama said. Obama later signed the bill, and the government reopened Thursday morning. The law funds the government through Jan. 15, 2014, and puts off the debt ceiling until Feb. 7, 2014, with the Treasury Department maintaining its ability to use "extraordinary measures" to extend the deadline. The deal, which was brokered in the Senate after the House was unable to find enough votes for its own plan, would provide back pay for federal workers, including pay for about 800,000 workers who were deemed nonessential and furloughed during the shutdown. States that used their own funds to carry on government operations would also be paid back by the federal government. (more…)
