Longest US govt shutdown ends as Trump signs legislation to fund federal operations

New York, Nov 13 (IANS) The longest government shutdown has ended with President Donald Trump signing the legislation passed by Congress to temporarily fund federal operations. 

The standoff between the Republicans and the Democrats that paralysed the government for 42 days broke on Wednesday when the House of Representatives voted to approve the legislation passed by the Senate to end the stalemate.

It was a setback for the Democrats whose demands about extending subsidies for the health insurance programme passed during former President Barack Obama’s tenure and is popularly known as Obamacare was not at accepted.

“It’s a great day”, Trump said after signing the bill, which the Republicans consider a triumph as they got it through Congress without giving in to the Democrats’ demands.

The legislation for temporary funding till a budget is passed was stuck in the Senate because the majority Republican Party lacked the 60 votes required to move it for a vote under procedural rules.

The stalemate was broken when eight Democrats crossed the floor to vote with the Republicans to move the bill to a vote on Monday.

The range of federal operations, from air travel to programmes for subsidised or free food for the needy, can now resume, although it may take some time for all of them to be fully functional.

All federal employees will get their back pay, including those who could not work during the shutdown.

Some, like the air traffic controllers, airport security staff and certain categories of essential workers, worked without pay during the shutdown.

Referring to next year’s Congressional elections and the problems caused by the shutdown, Trump said at the signing, "I just want to tell the American people, you should not forget this when we come up to the midterms”.

However, Democrats’ leader in the House, Hakeem Jeffries, said, “Either Republicans finally decide to extend the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) tax credits this year, or the American people will throw Republicans out of their jobs next year”.

Under the legislation, most government operations will be funded till the end of the year, by when a budget will have to be hammered out.

Funding for some programmes like services for retired military personnel and food for the poor – estimated to number 42 million – will continue till September.

The House votes were mostly along partisan lines, 222 to 209, with six Democrats voting with the Republican majority, and two Republicans voting against it.

Although the standoff may have contributed to the Republican Party's reverses in elections this month – which Trump acknowledged – it was also taking a toll on Democratic Party supporters who worked for the federal government and were not receiving their salaries, and the poor who depended on government aid.

This wore out some Democrats in the Senate, who decided to end the shutdown.

Democrat Congresswoman Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, who joined Republicans to vote in the House to end the shutdown, reflected their mood.

She said none of her friends who rely on food assistance “would want to trade their dinner for an ambiguous [Washington] DC beltway ‘messaging victory’”.

The defections, though, have created a rift in the party, and some Democrats have criticised the party’s leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, for not stopping the defections.

Trump has threatened to take an axe to Obamacare and proposed giving the subsidies directly to people eligible for it and letting them use it to choose their own insurance.

He said the subsidies go to the insurance companies, enriching them and sending their stocks soaring.

Hidden in the bill is an extraneous provision making it illegal for federal prosecutors to search senators' phone records without notice, and provides for compensation of as much as $500,000 for violations.

It is retroactive to 2022 and was prompted by prosecutors searching senators’ phone records during the investigations into the January 2021 protests by Trump’s supporters who broke into the Capitol while Congress was ratifying former President Joe Biden’s election.

--IANS

al/rs