Day: November 12, 2025

The Republican-led House on Wednesday night gave final approval of a measure to fund the federal government through January, paving the way for immediately ending the nation’s longest shutdown after 43 days. 

The 222-to-209 vote, with six Democrats joining nearly all Republicans, sent the bill to President Donald Trump, who has said he will sign it later Wednesday night. The move will reopen agencies that have been shuttered since Oct. 1, restore pay for hundreds of thousands of federal workers, and bring relief to Americans who have faced delayed food aid, disrupted travel, and suspended government services for more than six weeks.

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The bill extends funding for most of the federal government through Jan. 30 and provides full-year funding for the Agriculture Department, military construction and the legislative branch. It also reverses the layoffs that the Trump Administration initiated during the shutdown, protects federal workers against further layoffs through January, and guarantees that they will receive back pay.

But the package did not include the chief concession Senate Democrats had been demanding when the shutdown began: an extension of the enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire this year, raising health insurance prices for millions of Americans. Republican leaders in the Senate have pledged to hold a Senate vote by mid-December on whether to extend the enhanced subsidies, but Trump has not promised to support it. 

The House vote came two days after Monday night’s tense Senate vote, when eight moderate Democratic Senators broke ranks to provide the 60 votes needed to move the measure forward. Many in the party’s progressive wing reacted angrily, accusing colleagues of abandoning a defining fight over health care following election wins nationwide. 

“House Democrats will continue to fight to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits for tens of millions of Americans,” Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the House Minority Leader, said on the House floor before the vote. “This fight is not over. We’re just getting started. We’ll fight today, we’ll fight tomorrow, we’ll fight this week, we’ll fight next week, we’ll fight this month, we’ll fight next month. We’ll fight until we win this battle for the American people.”

For months, Democrats had been pushing for at least a one-year extension of the COVID-era tax credits that lower premiums for people who buy their own insurance. But Republicans rejected the proposal, saying it did not belong in a short-term funding bill. On Monday, the Senate voted 47 to 53 against a one-year extension in a separate test vote.

While Democrats were unable to secure an extension in this legislation, the deal’s supporters argued that reopening the government in exchange for a promise of a future vote on the health care subsidies was the only realistic option. “This was the only deal on the table,” said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, one of the Democrats’ lead negotiators. “It was our best chance to reopen the government and immediately begin negotiations to extend the [Affordable Care Act] tax credits.”

The eight members of the Democratic caucus who backed the bill are mostly centrists, including Sens. Shaheen, Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Tim Kaine of Virginia, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, and Jacky Rosen of Nevada, along with Angus King, a Maine independent who caucuses with the Democrats. In the House, Democratic Reps. Jared Golden of Maine, Adam Gray of California, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, Henry Cuellar of Texas, Tom Suozzi of New York, and Don Davis of North Carolina voted for the Republican bill.

Beyond the fight over health care, the legislation also allocates more than $200 million to bolster security for lawmakers and an additional $28 million for Supreme Court justices. It also includes a controversial clause allowing senators to seek damages of up to $500,000 if federal investigators access their phone records without notification—a provision widely seen as benefiting a group of Republican senators whose records were examined during the special counsel investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. After bipartisan criticism, House Speaker Mike Johnson said House Republicans would introduce a separate bill next week to repeal that clause.

The end of the shutdown will bring immediate relief to federal workers, who will soon begin receiving back pay after missing multiple paychecks. It is also expected to ease travel disruptions that had worsened amid the shortage of air-traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration staff. Funding for programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which were beginning to run out of money, will resume.

According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, the six-week shutdown is likely to leave a permanent $11 billion dent in economic output, even as the resumption of back pay and federal activity restores most short-term losses.

But the political fallout is still unfolding. Democrats from all wings of the party described the Senate’s compromise as a capitulation. America deserves better,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote on X, adding in a later post that “now is not the time to roll over.” Senator Bernie Sanders, a Vermont Independent, called the decision to back down “a horrific mistake.” Rep. Greg Casar of Texas, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said the deal was a “betrayal” of the millions of Americans counting on Democrats to fight to lower health care costs. “Accepting nothing but a pinky promise from Republicans isn’t a compromise—it’s capitulation,” Casar said in a statement.

While the shutdown is headed to an end, the health care fight remains unresolved. Millions of people who have benefited from the expanded subsidies could see insurance premiums climb by hundreds of dollars a month if Congress fails to act by year’s end, according to nonpartisan estimates. The Congressional Budget Office has projected that roughly two million Americans could lose coverage altogether once the extra subsidies expire.

Republicans have suggested that subsidy dollars should be redirected into accounts that individuals could use to pay medical bills directly, a concept Trump endorsed this week. He told reporters that he wants “a health care system where we pay the money to the people instead of the insurance companies,” though he did not offer details. Other Republicans, such as Senators Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Rick Scott of Florida, have floated similar ideas in recent months.

Democrats warn that such proposals would dismantle core parts of the Affordable Care Act and raise costs for millions. They argue that the subsidies are crucial to keeping premiums affordable for middle- and lower-income Americans.

Democratic leaders have said they will continue pressing for the subsidy extension in the weeks ahead, but the path remains uncertain. House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana has not committed to bringing a health care bill to the floor. Senate Republicans, who control the chamber 53 to 47, have agreed only to allow a vote—not to support the extension itself.

• Congress has reached a deal to end the shutdown, reopening federal agencies.
• The shutdown stemmed from disputes over Affordable Care Act and Medicaid funding.
• Public services will return to normal, but federal workers still face uncertainty.

Congress has reached a budget agreement, setting up an end to the government shutdown after 43 days once President Donald Trump signs the legislation.

The House passed a package of bills Wednesday night that will temporarily fund and reopen federal agencies through January 30 after the Senate finally arrived at a deal on November 9. In the coming weeks, lawmakers will negotiate on a longer-term solution to avoid another closure. Trump is likely to sign the bills quickly.

Alongside securing general government funding through January 30, the stopgap bills set a budget for the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration, and the legislative branch through January 2026. The package also restores full funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Congress’ plan does not extend Affordable Care Act subsidies — a major goal of Democrats during the shutdown — but leaves the door open for future negotiation.

The shutdown has directly impacted Americans: Airports have seen major delays, safety net programs were unable to pay full November benefits, and federal employees were furloughed or worked without pay for over a month.

What to know

The shutdown became the longest in US history, surpassing the previous record of 35 days in late 2018 and early 2019.

Senators gathered on Capitol Hill for a rare Sunday session on November 9, with enough Democratic members to overcome the 60-vote filibuster threshold agreeing to a deal that would end the shutdown. The deal, which the House approved November 12, also outlined plans to fund SNAP benefits for next year, reverse the recent mass firing of federal workers, and guarantee backpay to employees on the government payroll.

Healthcare spending has been at the heart of the shutdown, with Democrats pushing to extend ACA subsidies — which provide healthcare cost relief to millions of low- and middle-income Americans — beyond their December 31 expiration date. Under Wednesday’s agreement, Congress said it will negotiate on subsides before voting in December.

Democratic leaders also hoped to reverse the Medicaid reductions in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, but were unsuccessful.

“I am sorry that the American People are being terrorized by Democrats who have decided to shut the Government down to make me and other Republicans continue ObamaCare subsidies, which have been a windfall for Health Insurance Companies, and a DISASTER for the American People,” Trump wrote in a November 9 Truth Social post.

The House passed an initial budget agreement September 19, but Senate Republicans and Democrats hit a stalemate the following week, largely over the healthcare funding dispute.

The government paused all nonessential operations at 12:01 a.m. on October 1.

How Americans are affected

The shutdown hit Americans’ wallets and daily routines.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — which 42 million Americans rely on to afford groceries — ran out of funds to pay November benefits, and has been caught in a legal back-and-forth between states, nonprofits, and the Trump administration.

A federal court required Trump to pay November benefits despite efforts by the White House to withhold or only partially-fund payments, though this move was temporarily blocked by the Supreme Court.

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Special Supplemental Nutrition for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and Head Start childcare programs had their funds depleted during the shutdown. Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid payments continued as normal.

National parks, museums, and historical sites experienced closures and staffing shortages. Airports also saw major delays, with staff concerned that the shutdown would create chaos for holiday travel.

Airlines were canceling up to 10% of flights at major hubs in the last days of the shutdown — and schedules may take time to return to normal.

Business Insider has also heard from dozens of employees across agencies since the shutdown began, many of whom are concerned about their job security and ability to pay bills, even with the government reopened.

Select law enforcement, like border patrol, deportation officers, and Secret Service agents, were paid during the shutdown under orders from Trump, as were military personnel and lawmakers.

With the government reopen, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said he expects that Americans’ finances will soon return to normalcy.

“The shutdown of the federal government will weigh on economic activity while it persists,” he said in the Fed’s October meeting. “But these effects should reverse after the shutdown ends.”