Senate approves bipartisan legislation to end shutdown; House next

by · UPI

Nov. 10 (UPI) -- The U.S. Senate on Monday night approved bipartisan legislation to end the record-long government shutdown as House Speaker Mike Johnson called representatives to return to Washington to be there for their votes.

Monday marked the 41st day of the United States' longest-running government shutdown, which started Oct. 1. It beat the previous longest shutdown of 35 days, which took place in 2018 and 2019 during President Donald Trump's first term.

The House will take up the legislation as early at 4 p.m. Wednesday, and "multiple vote series are expected," according to a notice from Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota. The Republicans hold a 219-213 advantage with only a majority needed compared with 60 votes of 100 votes needed in the Senate for passage.

The Senate approved the final measure shortly before 9:30 p.m.

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The first procedural vote began at 5:41 p.m. and after three hours, there had been seven, including amendments.

Two Democratic amendments were rejected 53-47 along party lines. Those only needed a majority.

The measure passed 60-40. Like on Sunday to move the measure forward, eight senators who caucus as Democrats voted with Republicans in approval: Catherine Cortez Masto and Jackie Rosen of Nevada, Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Dick Durbin of Illinois, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Tim Kaine of Maryland and Angus King of Maine.

Randy Paul of Kentucky was the only Republican to vote no.

One amendment that also passed 60-40: replacing the text of the House-passed legislation with the Senate's one.

Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota said there would be eight procedural votes and amendments to be preceded by a series of speeches. The U.S. Senate website listed the different votes and the proceedings, which are live-streamed.

In an effort to speed up the process, members were asked to stay near their desks to shorten the votes to 10 minutes each.

Earlier, Thune said they were in a "holding pattern" though passage for funding, including pay for workers and programs, through January 30 was certain. But the process was likely to take several hours.

Late Monday afternoon, the GOP's whip office told CNN a vote would begin after 5 p.m. John Barrasso of Wyoming mobilized members for key votes. A GOP aide confirmed the plans to CBS News.

The following senators spoke over several hours: Patty Murray of Washington, Susan Collins of Maine, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Jeff Merkley of Oregon. Collins is the only Republican.

On Sept. 19, the House approved short-gap spending legislation along party lines 217-213 that doesn't include healthcare subsidies next year through the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.

Baldwin also wanted a vote on extending Obamacare for one year in an effort to force Republicans to go on the record. But that was voted down 53-57 along party lines.

House process

Johnson, who serves a district in Louisiana, on Monday said he couldn't guarantee a separate vote on the subsidies.

"We're going to do in the House what we always do and that is a deliberative process," he told CNN. "We're going to have to find consensus on whatever, whatever the proposal is."

Johnson said he will give a 36-hour notice before any House votes, but did not offer a specific timeline.

The speaker, who has kept the lower chamber out of session since late September, indicated that a vote could occur as early as this week.

Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Monday that House Democrats would continue to oppose the spending bill that advanced in the Senate this weekend.

"As House Democrats, we know we're on the right side of this fight, the right side of the American people, and we're not going to support partisan Republican spending bill that continues to gut the health care of the American people, and we're going to continue the fight to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits," he said at a news conference.

Senate's process

The Senate is scheduled to go into recess starting Tuesday for Veterans Day for one week, and was seeking to conclude business before then.

Thune said the American people "have suffered for long enough."

"Thankfully, there were a handful of Democrats that understood that this was just a stupid exercise by the Democrats to act like they were fighting Trump," Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri said.

Paul wanted hemp farming in the agriculture appropriations bill in exchange for allowing the legislation to move quickly. The Senate rejected the amendment 76-24.

"If Rand wants to plant his flag and hold the government shut down for over hemp in Kentucky, take that fight on. I think he'll lose that one pretty hard," said Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, noting that another senator wants an amendment to withhold pay from members during government shutdowns.

The vast majority of Democrats have voted against the motions.

"I'm disappointed, but my anger and frustration is directed at Republicans who forced an impossible false choice between affordable health care and reopening the government," Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said. "Now Democrats need to be unified in holding Republicans to their promise of having a vote on extending the health care subsidies in December, and if that measure fails to pass, and the subsidies are not extended, Republicans will be to blame, and they'll be held accountable."

Bipartisan support

Senators held a procedural vote Sunday in which seven Democrats and one Independent, King, joined Republicans to narrowly advance a funding measure 60-40.

In exchange for the Democrats' votes, Republicans agreed to hold a vote in the future on extending Obamacare subsidies.

All but a few Democrats have voted 14 times against the House stopgap measure out of concerns over a lack of an extension to the ACA tax credits, set to expire end of December. Approximately 22 million currently rely on the ACA for health insurance subsidies. In all, a record 24.3 million Americans were enrolled in the plan this year.

Open enrollment began Nov. 1 and participants are facing huge increases, including higher premiums with no subsidies. Extension of the subsidies would ease the cost pain.

"Healthcare is once again at the forefront of people's minds," Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said on the Senate floor. "People now see that premiums are about to skyrocket. They're terrified about how they're going to pay for their insurance."

The new measure would reverse all shutdown-related job layoffs, guarantee federal worker pay during the shutdown, establish a specific budget process and fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Trump is final outcome

Any bill passed by both chambers will require a signature by Trump to become law. Trump said he intends to sign the legislation.

"Well, it depends what deal we're talking about, but if it's the deal I heard about ... they want to change the deal a little bit, but I would say so," Trump told CNN's Kaitlan Collins in the Oval Office.

"I think, based on everything I'm hearing, they haven't changed anything, and we have support from enough Democrats, and we're going to be opening up our country. It's too bad it was closed, but we'll be opening up our country very quickly."

That includes adhering to a provision that would reverse layoffs of federal workers his administration pushed during the shutdown.

When House will be back in session

In the House, Johnson plans to swear in Adelita Grijalva of Arizona when the members return, according to a CNN source.

Grijalva was elected Sept. 23, but Johnson refused to swear her in until Senate Democrats agreed to reopen the government.

Once Grijalva is sworn in, she is expected to become the 218th signature necessary to bypass leadership and force a vote on compelling the release of files in the Jeffrey Epstein sex-abuse case.

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