The House of Representatives passed a short-term funding bill Wednesday night that will end the longest U.S. government shutdown in history.
The bill is now on President Donald Trump’s desk ready to be signed into law. The White House has scheduled the bill’s signing in the Oval Office for 9:45 p.m. ET.
“My friends, let’s get this done,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said shortly before voting began.
The shutdown began on October 1st.
Government operations remained closed because Senate Democrats overwhelmingly refused to vote for a funding measure that did not include an expansion of increased tax credits that would reduce the cost of Affordable Care Act health insurance plans for 20 million Americans.
Wednesday’s vote came two days after the Senate passed new legislation after the Republican majority in that chamber reached an agreement with eight members of the Democratic caucus to end a stalemate that led to the Oct. 1 shutdown.
Fourteen previous votes in the Senate failed to pass a Republican-backed House bill that would have funded the government through mid-November.
Most Democratic senators refused to vote for the bill because it did not provide expanded tax credits for millions of Americans who buy health insurance on Affordable Care Act marketplaces.
Under the Senate agreement, Republicans agreed to allow Democrats to vote in December on a bill of their choice to extend the increased subsidies, which are set to expire at the end of the month.
Without these tax credits, millions of Americans will see their Obamacare insurance costs rise sharply.
The Republican deal will reverse all layoffs of federal government employees related to the shutdown and ensure that all federal employees receive their normal salaries that they would have received if the government had not shut down.
The package also funds the SNAP program, which helps feed 42 million Americans through food stamps.
The agreement also includes provisions for a bipartisan budget process and prevents the White House from using continuing resolutions to fund the government.
CRs have been used repeatedly to avoid government shutdowns.
The agreement came over the weekend after days of headlines about air travel delays because air traffic controllers didn’t show up for work during the lockdown and the Trump administration’s move to completely eliminate and then only partially fund food stamp benefits for 42 million people.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., said during remarks on the House floor that some people will have to “double or even triple” their monthly insurance premiums because there is no protection for the additional ACA subsidies and that “more than 2 million Americans are expected to lose their health insurance next year because it is simply too expensive.”
DeLauro said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has “shown no interest” in holding a vote on the ACA subsidies, even though Senate Republicans said that was the plan.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said: “We should never have been here.”
“As Republicans, we tried to prevent a government shutdown more than a month ago,” Scalise said. “We waited 42 days during which Democrats repeatedly voted to keep the government closed to appease their most radical base.”
Scalise said “millions of Americans” had endured “pain and suffering” because Democrats refused to vote for a funding bill.
He accused Democrats of hypocrisy by calling for $200 billion in health care spending that would benefit “illegals,” while also advocating for eliminating the $50 billion rural health fund.
“It’s crazy,” Scalise said.
This is developing news. Check back for updates.
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