The United States House of Representatives will vote on a deal to end the ongoing government shutdown this week, after the Senate passed a bill to fund the government today.
The shutdown began on 1 October, and is the longest in U.S. history. The Senate's bill would fund the government at current levels until the end of January, with eight Democratic caucus members siding with Republicans to pass the bill.
The bill will now advance to the House, and then must be signed by U.S. President Donald Trump to become law.
Trump has backed the deal to end the shutdown. “Based on everything I’m hearing, they haven’t changed anything [in a potential deal], and we have support from enough Democrats, and we’re going to be opening up our country.”
According to Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, a Republican, there will be an official 36-hour notice before the House votes on the deal later this week. The House has been out of session at Johnson’s direction since initially passing a funding proposal in late September.
Johnson reportedly told House Republicans that he plans for a House vote on Wednesday.
Earlier proposals to fund the government failed after Democrats called for funding bills to include an extension of existing healthcare subsidies. Republicans refused to support these measures, leading to the shutdown.
Senate Republicans today rejected an amendment that would extend these subsidies for one year, but have agreed to hold a vote on an extension by mid-December as part of the deal to end the shutdown.
However, Johnson has not committed to doing so in the House. “We’re going to do in the House what we always do and that is a deliberative process,” he said.
The Senate's bill includes a reversal of the Trump administration’s layoffs of federal employees during the shutdown, and would prevent any further firings until its expiration in January.
The shutdown has cost the U.S. economy roughly US$15 billion each week, the White House's Council of Economic Advisers estimated. The Federal Aviation Administration began phasing in a 10% reduction in flights at major airports last week due to the shutdown, with 2,500 flights cancelled so far.
Johnson will also swear in Arizona Representative-Elect Adelita Grijalva before the House votes on the shutdown deal, his office said. Grijalva, a Democrat, was elected in September, and this is the longest ever delay for any representative’s swearing-in. Although Johnson previously said he would not swear in Grijalva until the House returned from its recess, Republican representatives have been sworn in while the House was not in session earlier this year.
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