The U.S. Senate voted 60-40 Sunday night to advance a bill to end the government shutdown, which has lasted a record 40 days.
The legislation must still pass a final vote in the Senate and then be approved by the House of Representatives before the government can officially reopen.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) kept lawmakers in session over the weekend as Republicans presented Democrats with a final offer: in exchange for support to reopen the government, Republicans agreed to guarantee a vote on extending expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies and to reverse some Trump administration Reduction-in-Force actions that had laid off federal workers during the shutdown.
Those concessions were accepted by enough Democrats to break the impasse. Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) joined Senators John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Angus King (I-Maine), and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) in voting with Republicans to break the filibuster.
The Senate Appropriations Committee released the text of an updated Continuing Resolution (CR) on Sunday. The measure will extend government funding through Jan. 30, reopening agencies and providing time to complete regular appropriations for fiscal year 2026.
The CR is paired with a previously approved Senate minibus that funds three of the 12 annual appropriations bills: Military Construction and Veterans Affairs; Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration, and rural development; and the Legislative Branch.
The agreement also prevents the administration from conducting additional layoffs while the CR remains in effect.
Senator Durbin said the bill “takes important steps to reduce the shutdown’s hurt” and called on Thune to uphold his promise to schedule a December vote on the ACA tax credits.
Senator Fetterman posted on X following the vote, stating, “After 40 days as a consistent voice against shutting our government down, I voted YES for the 15th time to REOPEN. I’m sorry to our military, SNAP recipients, gov workers, and Capitol Police who haven’t been paid in weeks. It should’ve never come to this. This was a failure.”
