House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., leads a news conference with Democratic members of the House of Representatives about health care and the planned vote to end the government shutdown outside the US Capitol in Washington, DC, November 12, 2025.
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The House of Representatives has approved a bill that funds the government through Jan. 30, bringing a close to the longest government shutdown in history, one that saw millions of Americans affected and ended with little political gain.
The bill passed Wednesday night despite Republicans’ narrow margin in the House. While there was near-unified opposition from Democrats, six Democrats joined their Republican colleagues to get the bill over the finish line 43 days after the shutdown began. Two Republicans voted no, the final vote was 222 to 209.
President Trump is expected to sign the bill on Wednesday night, paving the way for many federal workers to return to work on Thursday.
In addition to extending last year’s spending levels through the end of January for most of the government, the bill provides funding for some agencies through the end of next September, including payments for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The program, which provides food aid to nearly 1 in 8 Americans, has been mired in a court battle because of the shutdown.
The bill includes a measure to reverse layoffs the Trump administration imposed during the shutdown, provides backpay for federal employees, and institutes protections against further layoffs.
But the central issue underlying the entire shutdown — extensions on enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies that expire at the end of the year — is not addressed in the bill.
Instead, as part of the deal reached with a bipartisan contingent of senators, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., agreed to hold a vote in mid-December on Democrat-drafted legislation aimed at extending those subsidies.
That doesn’t sit well with many Senate Democrats, who remain wary of the pledge.
“A handshake deal with my Republican colleagues to reopen the government and no guarantee to actually lower costs is simply not good enough,” said Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., who voted against the measure.
Even if a December bill addressing the expiring subsidies passes the Senate, it would need to go to the House. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has not made a guarantee to bring such a bill to the floor for a vote.
A lot of pain, not a lot of gain
Conventional political wisdom says government shutdowns are not effective tools to advance a party’s policy goals. The last six weeks proved that to be the rule, not an exception.
The decision by Senate Democrats not to fund the government before Oct. 1 was fueled, at least in part, by demands from the Democrats’ political base to be a strong opposition party. The party honed in on a promise that they would not fund the government unless Republicans agreed to extend subsidies for people who buy health care through the Affordable Care Act marketplace.
The decision came after key Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, voted alongside Republicans to avoid a shutdown in March. The result was a furious Democratic base, who demanded the minority party exert what little leverage it has to force a negotiation with Republicans in exchange for their votes to fund the government.
With an eye toward the expiring subsidies and resulting skyrocketing premiums, Senate Democrats stood firm during the October shutdown, hoping their resolve, paired with the devastating impacts of the shutdown on millions of Americans, would bring Republicans to the negotiating table.
But the strategy ultimately didn’t work. Republicans didn’t budge and continued to hold regular votes to fund the government.
In the meantime, 42 million Americans who participate with SNAP didn’t receive the food aid they rely on. Air traffic controllers and most Transportation Security Administration employees had to remain on the job without pay, leading to the Federal Aviation Administration’s order to scale back flights. Millions of federal workers went without pay.
The group of seven Democrats and one independent senator who voted to end the shutdown acknowledged that waiting longer wouldn’t bring about a different result.
“There was no guarantee that waiting would get us a better result, but there was a guarantee that waiting would impose suffering on more everyday people,” Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., told NPR.
The result is an end to a shutdown that does not address the core demand from Democrats on the subsidies. Instead they are left to defend the kind of handshake agreement that they once said was insufficient.
Thune’s ultimate deal with Democrats aligns with his repeated statements throughout the shutdown that Republicans would be open to negotiating on the expiring subsidies only after the government was funded, not before.
Another factor that didn’t go Democrats’ way is the president himself. President Trump has been known at times to upend Congressional Republicans’ game plan. But he took a step back during the shutdown and let Thune drive the GOP strategy. He didn’t take the bait from Democrats who repeatedly asked where Trump “the great negotiator” was in the discussions.
What happens now?Â
Both parties have significant choices ahead that could lay the groundwork for their political successes and headaches through next year.
Senate Democrats have about a month to craft a bill that addresses the expiring ACA subsidies in a way that brings enough Republicans on board for passage.
If they’re successful at getting an extension, Democrats will be able to start 2026 with a policy victory in hand that will shape their messaging going into the midterm elections. If Republicans don’t support it, Democrats still have what they see as a winning issue — health care — to run on next year.
Some Republicans have shown interest in addressing the subsidies, but want to institute reforms like fraud prevention and income caps.
And both parties have to contend with the fact that the government is only funded for a few months. Congress will still have to pass nine other appropriations bills before the continuing resolution ends.
