US Senate reaches deal to end longest government shutdown
The United States Senate is holding a vote to advance a Republican stopgap funding package that could pave the way to end the longest government shutdown in the country’s history.
The breakthrough on Sunday came after a group of centrist Democrats negotiated a deal to reopen the government through January if Republicans promise to hold a vote on expiring healthcare subsidies by December, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
The package also included bills to fund some parts of the government, including food aid and the legislative branch, until the end of the fiscal year.
Some eight Democrats voted in favour of advancing the package.
Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna, reporting from Washington, DC, said the support from the Democrats meant that the Senate has the 60 votes required to break the weeks-long impasse.
“Now, this is what is called a cloture, a procedure by which the Senate agrees to continue the debate about the legislation and begin introducing and passing the bills aimed at ending the shutdown,” Hanna said.
“The important thing about the cloture vote is that once it is passed, at that 60 percent majority, every subsequent vote is by a simple majority. So it would appear to be plain sailing in the Senate to pass this bill and the continuing resolution to refund the government and ending the closure,” he added.
The amended package would still have to be passed by the House of Representatives and sent to President Donald Trump for his signature, a process that could take several days.
As news of the breakthrough emerged, Trump told reporters when he arrived at the White House after a weekend in Florida: “It looks like we’re getting very close to the shutdown ending.”
The shutdown, currently in its 40th day, has caused thousands of flight cancellations, furloughed about 750,000 federal employees and put food assistance for millions of Americans at risk.
Air traffic staffing shortages led at least 2,300 flights travelling within the US and to and from the country to be cancelled as of Sunday, according to data from tracking platform FlightAware, along with more than 8,000 delays.
New York City area airports, along with Chicago’s O’Hare and Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airports, were especially hard-hit.
Meanwhile, some 42 million people – or one in eight Americans – who rely on the food aid programme Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) have seen their benefits threatened. Although two courts ordered that the Trump administration must pay out SNAP funds during the shutdown, the Supreme Court paused one of the rulings until further legal arguments could be heard.
“Now, the Trump administration has told states they cannot pay more than 60 percent of the funds due this month, and it is threatening to cut all federal funds to any state that does so,” said Al Jazeera’s Hanna.
“For Americans, this is really beginning to bite home, and they are trying to ramp up the pressure on senators,” Hanna said.
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