WASHINGTON (BN24) — The House on Wednesday night voted to pass legislation to reopen the federal government and end an acrimonious 43-day shutdown, the longest in American history.
The successful vote came after Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, brought the Republican-controlled chamber back into session for the first time since Sept. 19, wrapping up an extraordinarily long and unscheduled recess.
The House passed the measure in a 222-209 vote. The Senate had approved the same legislation Monday when eight Democrats peeled off and voted with Republicans to break a filibuster to end the shutdown.
The bill now heads to President Donald Trump’s desk to become law and reopen the government, restoring funding that has been frozen or halted. Trump has said he will sign the bill, which will keep the government open through Jan. 30 with some programs, like SNAP food benefits, funded through September.
Before the vote, Johnson apologized to Americans for the disruptive shutdown, blaming Democrats for mass flight delays and cancellations, millions of civilian workers going without pay, and families going hungry. He said Senate Democrats blocked a bill to fund the government 14 times before ultimately caving.
“While the Democrats keep voting to shut their government down, Republicans are going to vote to open it back up,” Johnson said in a floor speech before the vote. “And with that, we’re going to get the American government running again and working for the people, as they deserve.”
The package includes a “minibus” of three appropriations bills through next September and keeps the rest of the government open at current levels through Jan. 30.
It includes full funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, which will keep the program afloat through September. More than 40 million Americans rely on SNAP. Some told NBC News that they ran out of food as the shutdown cut off money for the program, and the Trump administration fought in the courts against having to shift money around to fully fund it.
The legislation also provides limited protections for federal workers who have been under assault since Trump’s inauguration. It reinstates thousands of workers who were laid off during the shutdown and ensures there are no more reductions in force, known as “RIFs,” at least through the end of January. And it provides back pay for workers who were furloughed or working without pay these past six weeks.
But in a major concession from Democrats, the bill does not include an extension of enhanced subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, after Republicans held firm against extending those funds beyond this year. That means more than 20 million Americans could see their premiums spike next year.
Many House and Senate Democrats are fuming over the failure to secure health care funding as part of the bill. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Republican of South Dakota, has promised a Senate vote on a to-be-determined ACA funding bill, with no guarantees that it will pass. Johnson has not promised a vote in the House.
“We cannot enable this kind of cruelty with our cowardice,” said progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York.
In the House Rules Committee on Tuesday, Republicans rejected Democratic motions to guarantee a floor vote on an ACA funding extension, and turned away an amendment by Rep. Steven Horsford, Democrat of Nevada, to redirect Trump’s $40 billion “bailout” to Argentina and instead put that to extending ACA funding.
“I guess MAGA stands for MAKE ARGENTINA GREAT AGAIN,” Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, Democrat of New Mexico, said in response.
The Democratic anger means House Republicans will likely have to carry the bill to passage.
In a bullish sign for the legislation’s prospects, the sometimes rebellious House Freedom Caucus circulated talking points internally praising the bill, which were obtained by NBC News. The document calls it a “responsible CR” that funds the government into 2026 and avoids a “bloated” omnibus to be negotiated over Christmas. And, it notes, the appropriations bills in the minibus either kept spending flat or contained only modest increases.
“The House Freedom Caucus has fought in lock-step with President Trump and Republican leadership in Congress,” the Freedom Caucus document said.
Tucked inside the bill is a provision that is generating heavy pushback from Democrats and even some grumbling among House Republicans. It would allow senators, but not House members, to sue the federal government for hundreds of thousands of dollars if their phone records were obtained without prior notification as part of the Jan. 6, 2021, investigation. It appears to apply to eight specific GOP senators.
Although emotions are raw in the Democratic caucus over some of their senators caving, party leaders say the high-stakes showdown with Trump and the Republicans “crystallized” how Democrats are fighting for health care and affordability for millions of Americans. That economic message, they say, propelled them to victory in last week’s elections in Virginia and New Jersey and will help the party in 2026.
“That will be one of the defining contrasts of the midterms: Democrats working on behalf of the people to lower costs versus Republicans who have made life more expensive for everyday families,” Rep. Suzan DelBene, Democrat of Washington, head of the House Democrats’ campaign arm, said in a statement to NBC News.
“The House Democrats have the better message, stronger candidates, and as we all saw in last week’s elections, the American people are on our side as we go into the midterms,” the statement said.
Shortly before Wednesday’s vote, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York, filed a discharge petition in a bid to bypass Johnson and force a future floor vote on a three-year extension of the expiring Obamacare subsidies. But that would need the support of at least four House Republicans to force a vote.
“We’ll fight until we win this battle for the American people. That’s our commitment as House Democrats,” Jeffries said on the floor, adding that the fight will end either when Republicans accept a funding extension to prevent premium hikes, “or the American people will throw Republicans out of their jobs next year and end the speakership of Donald J. Trump once and for all.”
There was plenty of pain during the six-week impasse, some of it caused by the Trump administration as it tried to ramp up pressure on the targeted bloc of moderate Senate Democrats. In addition to the mass layoffs, the White House had threatened to halt SNAP payments to states until the shutdown ended. It ultimately doled out partial payments under a judge’s order, while fighting the issue up to the Supreme Court.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy last week announced that the Federal Aviation Administration would have to cut the number of flights in American skies by 4 percent starting last weekend and ramped up reductions to 6 percent by Tuesday, due to air traffic controller staffing shortages spurred by the shutdown.
Thousands of flights have been either delayed or canceled, snarling airports nationwide. It is expected to take a few days for airports to recover after the bill is signed into law.
The 43-day shutdown surpassed the previous record of 35 days set during a 2018-2019 budget standoff. The extended closure of government operations created cascading effects across multiple sectors of American life, from aviation to nutrition assistance to federal workforce stability.
The House had been in an extraordinarily long recess since Sept. 19, leaving the Senate as the primary venue for negotiations over ending the shutdown. The decision by eight Senate Democrats to break with their party leadership and vote with Republicans proved pivotal in breaking the deadlock that had persisted through 14 previous failed votes.
The reinstatement of laid-off federal workers and the prohibition on further reductions in force through January represent significant protections, though limited in duration. Federal workers who remained on the job without pay during the shutdown will receive back pay once the legislation becomes law.
The absence of Affordable Care Act subsidy extensions represents a significant defeat for Democrats who had made healthcare funding a central demand throughout the shutdown negotiations. The enhanced subsidies, which are set to expire at the end of the year, have helped make health insurance more affordable for millions of Americans purchasing coverage through ACA marketplaces.
The provision allowing certain senators to sue over phone records obtained during the Jan. 6 investigation adds a controversial element to the legislation. The specific language appears tailored to benefit eight GOP senators whose records may have been accessed during the congressional investigation into the Capitol attack.
The House Freedom Caucus’s internal endorsement of the legislation signals broad Republican support within the chamber, potentially easing Johnson’s path to securing passage without relying on Democratic votes. The caucus praised the measure for avoiding what it characterized as a “bloated” omnibus spending package while maintaining relatively flat spending levels.
The flight delays and cancellations that plagued airports during the final days of the shutdown highlighted the tangible impact of reduced air traffic controller staffing. The Federal Aviation Administration’s mandated reductions in daily flights created ripple effects throughout the national aviation system, with recovery expected to take several days even after government operations resume.
With Trump’s stated intention to sign the bill, the 43-day shutdown appears poised to end, though the lack of healthcare subsidy extensions and the promise of only a future Senate vote on the issue leave a major Democratic priority unresolved. The discharge petition filed by Jeffries represents a potential avenue for Democrats to force consideration of ACA funding, though success would require Republican defections in the narrowly divided House.
