What Happens Now That the Government Will Reopen?

It finally happened! On Monday, the U.S. Senate agreed to fund the entire government through January 30. The vote was 60 to 40 with eight Democrats voting with the Republicans and Rand Paul (R-KY) voting against the measure. The U.S. House of Representatives must still vote for the funding stopgap measure, but President Donald Trump said that he will sign the bill into law.

According to an article authored by Bradley Devlin, Jacob Adams, and George Caldwell and published at The Daily Signal, the bill promises to fund numerous agencies. 

 Some government agencies and initiatives would receive funding for the full fiscal year, including the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the FDA, congressional operations, and construction projects for the military. The bill would bring back the thousands of furloughed federal personnel to their workplaces and compensate them for their missed paychecks….

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., told The Daily Signal that he did not know if his Democrat colleagues were disappointed by the outcome of the shutdown, but said, “there were plenty more than [sic] … beyond just the eight that wanted to vote, but … they were afraid.” The Pennsylvania Democrat noted that some of his colleagues were “monetizing off the chaos” through fundraising.

Fetterman was one of eight Senate Democrat Caucus members to break ranks and strike a deal with Senate Republican leadership. The deal that paved the way for Monday night’s vote came together on Sunday when enough Senate Democrats bucked the minority leader’s shutdown strategy and provided the support needed to overcome the Senate filibuster and procedurally advance the measure. In exchange for funding the government, Senate Democrats got a promised future vote on extending the temporarily enhanced Obamacare subsidies, which Democrats set to expire at the end of 2025 in a party line vote under President Joe Biden.

Democrats shut down the government on Oct. 1 in an attempt to use the shutdown as leverage to extend the COVID-era subsidies that were set to expire.

Many Republicans senators have been critical of the subsidies that Democrats were trying to pass by using the shutdown as leverage. Critics of the subsidies claim they cost taxpayers billions of dollars but do little to lower healthcare costs.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) voted no on reopening the government, but he may pay a big price for the reopening of the government. There is an increasing number of Democrats calling for Schumer to step down as minority leader because he could not keep his caucus together. However, he still has some Senators supporting him. Jacob Adams reported the following in his article published at The Daily Signal. 

The government shutdown began on Oct. 1 because Democrats repeatedly withheld support for measures that would have funded the government over demands to extend enhanced Obamacare subsidies. Senate Republicans signaled their openness to debate and vote on the Obamacare subsidies, but only when the government was open.

The deal that is poised to break the shutdown impasse was a win for Senate Republicans. While the deal guarantees a future vote to extend the Obamacare enhanced subsidies, which were passed during the Biden administration under the understanding that they would eventually expire, that vote will be separate from the measure to reopen the

Government. Now some Democrats are criticizing Schumer for failing to ensure that the subsidies will be extended in exchange for reopening the government or extracting other major concessions.

Democrat Senate candidates are turning Schumer’s failure into a campaign issue, attacking the New York senator for failing to keep his conference united – despite the current shutdown being the longest in American history….