Bill to end government shutdown survives key hurdle before House-wide vote

The House will vote on reopening the federal government Wednesday after lawmakers’ funding bill survived a key hurdle earlier in the morning.

The bipartisan deal to end the 42-day government shutdown advanced through the House Rules Committee overnight Wednesday, with all Republicans supporting the measure and all Democrats against.

It now moves to the full House for consideration, where multiple people familiar with GOP leaders’ conversations told Fox News Digital they believe it will pass with nearly all Republicans on board.

Passage through the House Rules Committee is a meaningful step toward ending the shutdown, now the longest in U.S. history by roughly a week.

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The panel’s hearing to advance the bill lasted more than six hours, kicking off Wednesday evening and ending shortly after 1 a.m. on Thursday.

Democrats attempted to force votes on amendments dealing with COVID-19-era enhanced Obamacare subsidies that are set to expire at the end of this year and other issues opposed by the GOP, though all failed.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., made a notable surprise appearance at one point, testifying in favor of his own amendment to extend those subsidies for another three years.

The lengthy hearing saw members on opposite sides of the aisle clash several times as well, with Democrats repeatedly accusing Republicans of robbing Americans of their healthcare and taking a “vacation” for several weeks while remaining in their districts during the shutdown.

“I am sick and tired of hearing you all say we had an eight-week vacation,” House Rules Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., said at one point. “I worked every day. I don’t know about you. I don’t want to hear another soul say that.”

Democrats and some Republicans also piled on a provision in the funding bill that would allow GOP senators to sue the federal government for $500,000 for secretly obtaining their phone records during ex-Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation.

“I think there’s gonna be a lot of people, if they look and understand this, they’re going to see it as self-serving, self-dealing kind of stuff. And I don’t think that’s right,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said.

“I’m trying to figure out what we can do to force the Senate’s hand to say, ‘You’re going to repeal this provision and fix it,’ without amending it here.”

The bill will now get a House-wide “rule vote,” a procedural test that, if it passes, allows lawmakers to debate the legislation itself.

Lawmakers are expected to then hold a final vote sometime on Wednesday evening on sending the bill to President Donald Trump’s desk for his signature.

Trump signaled he was supportive of the legislation in comments to reporters on Monday.

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“We’ll be opening up our country very quickly,” Trump said when asked if he backed the deal.

The Senate broke through weeks of gridlock on Monday night to pass the legislation in a 60-40 vote, with eight Democrats joining the GOP to reopen the government.

Meanwhile, travel disruptions have been causing chaos at U.S. airports, with air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers being forced to work without pay since last month. Many of those employees had been forced to take on second jobs to make ends meet, fueling staffing shortages and flight delays that threatened to overshadow the Thanksgiving holiday.

Millions of Americans who rely on federal food benefits were also left in limbo amid a partisan fight over whether and how to fund those programs during the shutdown.

The bill would extend fiscal year (FY) 2025 federal funding levels through Jan. 30 to give negotiators more time to strike a longer-term deal for FY 2026.

It would also give lawmakers some headway with that mission, advancing legislation to fund the Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration; the Department of Veterans Affairs and military construction; and the legislative branch.

They are three of 12 individual bills that are meant to make up Congress’ annual appropriations, paired into a vehicle called a “minibus.”

In a victory for Democrats, the deal would also reverse federal layoffs conducted by the Trump administration in October, with those workers getting paid for the time they were off.

A side-deal struck in the Senate also guaranteed Senate Democrats a vote on legislation extending Obamacare subsidies that were enhanced during the COVID-19 pandemic, which are set to expire at the end of this year.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., however, has made no such promise in the House.