Topline
The Senate moved towards ending the longest shutdown in U.S. history on Sunday after a group of eight Democrats joined the Republicans in the chamber and backed a procedural vote on a legislative deal to fund the government, in a move that has drawn strong pushback from some Democratic leaders as it lacks guarantees on extensions for health care subsidies.
Key Facts
The Senate voted 60-40 on the procedural vote to advance the spending bill, with eight Democrats backing it, while Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was the lone Republican dissenter.
The procedural vote advances a package that will fund most federal agencies through late January and includes a clause to reverse the mass firings of federal workers carried out after the shutdown began.
The deal also sets up a mid-December vote on extending Affordable Care Act subsidies, which are set to expire at the end of the year; however, the Republican side has offered no guarantees for its passage.
The procedural measure, which needed 60 votes to pass, ran into a delay on Sunday as three GOP deficit hawks, Sens Mike Lee, R-Utah, Ron Johnson, R-Wis. and Rick Scott, R-Fla., briefly with held their vote and held talks with Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.
The three senators eventually agreed to back the measure but the 60 vote threshold was reached only after another GOP senator, John Cornyn of Texas, flew back from his home state and cast his vote.
Who Are The Eight Democrats Who Voted To Pass The Measure?
Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., and Angus King, I-Maine, were the lead negotiators of the deal. They were joined in the procedural vote by Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois, Tim Kaine of Virginia, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, and Nevada’s Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen. Shaheen, acknowledged that some of her Democratic colleagues would be dissatisfied with the outcome but said the GOP had made it clear for months that this was the “only deal on the table,” and “waiting another week or another month wouldn’t deliver a better outcome. It would only mean more harm.” King also defended the deal saying, the shutdown wasn’t achieving its goal and “at the same time hurting a lot of people.” He added that they now have a “concrete agreement” to bring to the “floor of the Senate before the middle of December a bill dealing with the ACA tax credits and other healthcare issues.” He added: “As of this morning our chances [on extending healthcare subsidies] were zero, as of tonight our chances are maybe 50 percent.”
