- Bill includes three appropriations measures.
- Democrats had resisted funding measure without healthcare fixes.
- Trump pushes for direct payments over ACA subsidies.
WASHINGTON: The US Senate on Sunday moved forward on a measure aimed at reopening the federal government and ending a 40-day shutdown that has sidelined federal workers, delayed food aid and snarled air travel.
In a procedural vote, senators advanced a House-passed bill that will be amended to fund the government until January 30 and include a package of three full-year appropriations bills. If the Senate eventually passes the amended bill, the package still must be approved by the House of Representatives and sent to President Donald Trump for his signature, a process that could take several days.
Under a deal struck with a group of Democrats, Republicans agreed to a vote in December on extending subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, according to a person familiar with negotiations over the bill. The subsidies have been a Democratic priority during the funding battle.
The resolution would also reverse at least some of the Trump administration’s mass layoffs of federal workers during the shutdown and fund Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programme benefits for a year.
“All federal employees, including members of our military and Coast Guard, the Capitol police officers, Border Patrol agents, TSA screeners, air-traffic controllers, will receive their back wages” under the deal, Republican Senator Susan Collins, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said of the measure.
The deal was brokered by two New Hampshire Democrats, Senators Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen, and Angus King, an independent from Maine, the person said. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the chamber’s top Democrat, voted against the measure.
Sunday marked the 40th day of the shutdown, which has sidelined federal workers and affected food aid, parks and travel, while air traffic control staffing shortages threaten to derail travel during the busy Thanksgiving holiday season late this month.
Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, said the mounting effects of the shutdown have pushed the chamber toward an agreement.
“Temperatures cool, the atmospheric pressure increases outside and all of a sudden it looks like things will come together,” Tillis told reporters.
Should the government remain closed for much longer, economic growth could turn negative in the fourth quarter, especially if air travel does not return to normal levels by Thanksgiving, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett warned on the CBS “Face the Nation” show. Thanksgiving falls on November 27 this year.
Trump takes aim at healthcare subsidies
The wrangling on Capitol Hill came as Trump on Sunday again pushed to replace subsidies for the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance marketplaces with direct payments to individuals.
The subsidies, which helped double ACA enrollment to 24 million since they were put in place in 2021, are at the heart of the shutdown. Republicans have maintained they are open to addressing the issue only after government funding is restored.
Trump took to his Truth Social platform on Sunday to blast the subsidies as a “windfall for Health Insurance Companies, and a DISASTER for the American people,” while demanding the funds be sent directly to individuals to buy coverage on their own. “I stand ready to work with both Parties to solve this problem once the Government is open,” Trump wrote.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch Trump ally, said in separate TV interviews that Trump’s healthcare idea would not be introduced before lawmakers pass a federal funding measure.
“We’re not proposing it to the Senate right now,” Bessent said in an interview with ABC‘s “This Week” programme. “We are not going to negotiate with the Democrats until they reopen the government.”
Americans shopping for 2026 Obamacare health insurance plans are facing a more than doubling of monthly premiums on average, health experts estimate, with the pandemic-era subsidies due to expire at the end of the year.
Republicans rejected a proposal on Friday by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, to vote to reopen the government in exchange for a one-year extension of tax credits that lower costs for plans under the Affordable Care Act, often referred to as Obamacare.
Democratic Senator Adam Schiff said on Sunday he believed Trump’s healthcare proposal was aimed at gutting the ACA and allowing insurance companies to deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.
“So the same insurance companies he’s railing against in those tweets, he is saying: ‘I’m going to give you more power to cancel people’s policies and not cover them if they have a pre-existing condition,'” Schiff said on ABC‘s “This Week” programme.
