The Senate passed a major funding package Monday night that is likely to bring to an end the longest partial government shutdown in history. On a 60-40 vote, the Senate sent to the House a measure that would fund the government through Jan. 30 and provide full-year appropriations for the departments of Agriculture and Veterans Affairs, along with legislative operations. Eight Democratic caucus members broke with the party to support the package, as they did Sunday night on a key procedural vote. Democrats had demanded an extension of enhanced health care subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year, something they did not get. The House is expected to reconvene Wednesday to take up the bill, as Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said he would give his chamber 36 hours to travel back to Washington. “I’d like for us to be voting on this as early as Wednesday, which is the quickest we could process it if the Senate does their work,” Johnson said Monday evening on Fox News. President Donald Trump said he supported the deal Monday, and that “we’ll be opening up our country, very quickly.” He said he would abide by the deal’s provisions relating to firing federal employees. The bill would require rehiring fired federal employees, while barring mass layoffs, as the administration has sought, through Jan. 30. “The deal is very good,” Trump said. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., and most Democrats opposed the bill, along with Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky. But enough moderate and retiring Democrats had grown weary of prolonging the shutdown, with Republicans continuing to refuse to negotiate on health care. With Republicans in control of the White House and Congress, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., said late Sunday night that Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s promise to hold a vote on extending the expiring Affordable Care Act tax credits by next month was enough to get her to support the bill. “This was the only deal on the table,” Shaheen said. “It was our best chance to reopen the government and immediately begin negotiations to extend the ACA tax credits that tens of millions of Americans rely on to keep costs down.” The bill also would provide final full-year funding for programs covered by the Agriculture, Legislative Branch and Military Construction-VA bills, which were in the package the Senate passed earlier this year. Hemp and health care Before voting for passage, the Senate voted against an amendment proposed by Paul to strip out language he objected to in the Agriculture funding bill regulating the hemp industry. The amendment was tabled on a 76-24 vote. Paul has said the language, pushed by his Kentucky counterpart Mitch McConnell, would “destroy” the industry. “Every hemp plant in America will have to be destroyed, every hemp seed in America will have to be destroyed, and 100 percent of the hemp products that are sold will no longer be allowed to be sold,” Paul said Monday. GOP leaders had dropped McConnell’s language from the bill to get it passed out of the Senate this summer. But after conference talks with the House, lawmakers added language banning the sale of intoxicating hemp products, like delta-8 THC gummies and chocolates. The final version would prevent the “unregulated sale of intoxicating hemp-based or hemp-derived products, including Delta-8, from being sold online, in gas stations, and corner stores, while preserving non-intoxicating CBD and industrial hemp products," a GOP summary said. Democrats also made a last-ditch attempt to secure a one-year extension of the health insurance subsidies, as Schumer had proposed as a compromise last week. "I just can't stand by without a fight," said Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., who offered an amendment for a one-year extension. "Americans have said loudly and clearly that they are in a health care crisis." But Republicans have said they can't support extending those subsidies without negotiating changes to make health care costs more sustainable. An effort to take up her amendment was defeated 47-53, with every Republican opposing it. And Democrats also sought an amendment designed to prohibit the Trump administration's use of a "pocket rescission," a legally untested budget maneuver that allows the White House to cancel previously appropriated funds within 45 days of the end of a fiscal year without congressional approval. The administration relied on that procedure to claw back nearly $5 billion in foreign aid earlier this year. An effort by Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., to take up an amendment to prohibit the practice was defeated on a 47-53 vote along party lines. The House vote to end the shutdown will be one of the chamber’s first since Sept. 19, when it passed a now-doomed continuing resolution that would have extended funding through Nov. 21. Johnson has kept his members home since that vote to increase pressure on the Senate. The new bill is expected to pass the House with support from nearly all Republicans and likely at least a few Democrats. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., is against the bill, though, and House Democrats will widely oppose it. Many remain angry that eight Senate Democratic caucus members had cut short a shutdown they had hoped to use as leverage to extend the health insurance subsidies. “We're focused right now on continuing the battle in the House of Representatives on behalf of the American people,” Jeffries said. “We have to decisively address the Republican health care crisis.” John T. Bennett and Nina Heller contributed to this report.
