Furloughed federal workers stand in line for hours ahead of a special food distribution by the Capital Area Food Bank and No Limits Outreach Ministries on Barlowe Road in Hyattsville, Maryland, on Tuesday, Oct. 28. Photo by Ashley Murray, States Newsroom.

By Jennifer Shutt, Ariana Figueroa and Shauneen Miranda
Indiana Capital Chronicle

WASHINGTON — The longest shutdown in U.S. history ended late Wednesday, Nov. 12 when Pres. Donald Trump signed a spending package that reopens the government and funds most of it through January.

All of Indiana’s GOP House members supported the bill, while the state’s two Democrats opposed it. The Oval Office ceremony came just hours after the House approved the measure, following Senate passage earlier in the week.

Trump urged Senate Republicans to eliminate the rule that requires bills to garner the support of at least 60 lawmakers to advance.

The stalemate led to a 43-day shutdown that delayed aid programs, halted pay for federal workers and caused flight delays.

After six weeks of failed votes, seven centrist Democrats and one independent broke with party leaders to advance and pass the bill.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who said throughout the shutdown he was interested in a bipartisan path forward on health insurance costs after the shutdown ended, committed to hold a floor vote on a Democratic bill “no later than the second week in December.”

Debate was largely along party lines, with two Republicans opposing and six Democrats supporting.

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Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the spending panel, said the bill fails to address rising health care costs.

U.S. House Appropriations Committee ranking member Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., speaks with reporters inside the Capitol building on Wednesday, Nov. 12. Photo by Jennifer Shutt, States Newsroom.

The Senate rewrote the House’s stopgap bill into a 394-page package combining three full-year funding bills and extending funding to Friday, Jan. 30 – potentially creating a partial shutdown if needed bills are not enacted.

The updated measure gives Congress a couple more months to work out agreement on the remaining nine appropriations bills that were supposed to become law before the start of the current fiscal year on Wednesday, Oct. 1.

Trump will turn his attention toward the rising cost of health care that Democrats highlighted during the shutdown, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a Wednesday briefing, though she didn’t put a firm timeline on when he’ll release any plans.

Democrats plan a discharge petition to force a vote on extending ACA tax credits for three years, matching the timeline from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. They’ll need some GOP support to reach 218 signatures.

What’s In The New Bill

The spending package wraps in several different bills and provisions, such as the three full-year funding bills that cover the Agriculture Department, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Legislative Branch, military construction projects and Department of Veterans Affairs.

• $30 million for the U.S. Capitol Police to enhance protections for lawmakers, $30 million for the U.S. Marshals Service to bolster security for members of the judicial and executive branches, and $28 million for enhanced safety for Supreme Court justices;
• Language requiring the Trump administration to reinstate the thousands of workers it sent layoff notices to during the shutdown and preventing officials from firing those workers through January;
• Provisions mandating the Trump administration provide back pay to all federal workers, including those furloughed during the shutdown. Trump at one point during the shutdown had threatened to yank that back pay, though it is required by law.

The Trump administration stated before the vote it strongly supports the bill.

The Agriculture and Military Construction-VA spending bills include tens of billions of dollars in earmarks requested by lawmakers from both political parties, important to them as midterm elections loom in 2026.

‘Legislative Self-Dealing’ In Senate Attacked

But not every Republican on Capitol Hill is happy with how the full-year bills turned out.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., talks with reporters inside Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol building on Wednesday, Nov. 12. Photo by Jennifer Shutt, States Newsroom.

Speaker Johnson announced mid-afternoon that the House would take a separate vote later this month to remove language from the package that will allow senators to file suit against the federal government if their data is subpoenaed.

The provision, tucked into the full-year Legislative Branch spending bill, is retroactive to Jan. 1, 2022, and would apply to the eight senators who had their cell phone records subpoenaed during a 2023 investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

The FBI reportedly obtained data for cell phone use between Jan. 4 and Jan. 7, 2021, for Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, as well as Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania.

South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham told reporters earlier in the day that he will “definitely” be filing a lawsuit after the new provision becomes law, later adding he wasn’t sure if he’d win such a case.

Dissatisfaction among GOP lawmakers with that provision was on full display on social media, including Florida’s Steube.