Seven Democrats and one independent voted with Republicans on Sunday night to reopen the government to end the longest shutdown in US history.
US House Speaker Mike Johnson said the House of Representatives will vote “as soon as possible” after a Senate vote on Sunday opened the door to the federal government reopening.
Johnson told reporters that he will give his House colleagues 36 hours’ notice pending a final vote from the Senate and added that members should start returning to Washington “right now”.
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“We applaud seven Senate Democrats and one independent senator who did the right thing,” Johnson said of the 60-40 vote on Sunday night that could be the first step to the end of the longest government shutdown in United States history.
Among the Democrats who voted with their Republican counterparts are Senators Dick Durbin of Illinois, Jacky Rosen of Nevada, Tim Kaine of Virginia, and Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen from New Hampshire. They joined Angus King, an independent senator from Maine, as well as two other Democrats who had already defected from other Democrats: Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and John Fetterman of Pennsylvania.
The legislation provides funding to reopen the government and finance programmes including US Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food aid. It also ensures back pay for furloughed federal workers whose fate had been left in doubt.
Included is funding to keep much of the federal government running for the next couple of months, to January 30, with a stopgap measure. The legislation largely funds government operations at their current rates.
But notably lacking is any clear resolution to expiring healthcare subsidies that Democrats have been fighting for as millions of Americans stare down rising insurance premiums. That debate was pushed off for a vote next month, weeks before the subsidies are set to expire, but some experts are concerned that Democrats will not deliver.
“Democrats capitulating in a fight to lower costs will reverse all the brand gains they have made over the last few months,” Lindsay Owens, executive director of the economic think tank the Groundwork Collaborative, said in a statement provided to Al Jazeera. “If they can’t do this, voters will be even more cynical. Two parties talk about affordability, but neither will fight to deliver it.”
If healthcare subsidies do expire, average premium costs would more than double for Americans who get their insurance through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis from September.
Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries vowed to continue to push to extend ACA subsidies.
“This is not a partisan fight for us. This is a patriotic fight,” Jeffries told reporters at a press conference.
He pointed out that more registered Republicans rely on the tax credits than registered Democrats or those who are unaffiliated with either major political party.
“In all likelihood, part of this deal is that the Democrats are going to be able to put forward the bill themselves in December for a vote so they will control the narrative of the bill and the vote,” Republican strategist Adolfo Franco told Al Jazeera.
Franco also added that because there are Republicans in favour of extending the subsidies, it is likely to pass.
Air travel in flux
But despite progress towards reopening the government, havoc is still hitting the nation’s airports.
Airlines on Monday cancelled more than 1,000 US flights for a fourth consecutive day as government flight cuts and air traffic staffing absences continue creating issues with aviation.
“The problem we have with air travel is that our air traffic controllers are overworked and unpaid and many of them have called in sick. That’s a very stressful job and even more stressful exponentially when they’re having trouble providing for their families,” Speaker Johnson told reporters on Monday.
US President Donald Trump is pressuring air traffic controllers to return to work.
On Monday, Trump said he would dock pay for air traffic controllers who do not return and would concurrently give a $10,000 bonus to those who stayed on the job through the shutdown.
On Wall Street, markets are trending high on news that the government shutdown may be coming to a close. As of 11am in New York (16:00 GMT) the Nasdaq is up 1.7 percent, S&P 500 is up 0.8 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, on the other hand, remains relatively flat, and is up by only 0.04 percent.
