Senate passes bipartisan funding bill, setting stage for government to reopen this week

The Senate’s ongoing shutdown impasse officially ended late Monday night, putting congress on the path to reopening the government later this week.

Senators introduced a bipartisan funding package to end the government shutdown after a group of Senate Democrats broke with their colleagues and joined Republicans in their attempt to reopen the government.

Those same eight members of the Senate Democratic Caucus stuck with Republicans and provided the tie-breaking votes needed to send the package to the House.

Mike Johnson looks forward to voting on Wednesday as the end of the government shutdown approaches

Votes have rolled into Monday night on the 41st day of the shutdown and have resulted in the updated Continuing Resolution (CR) being combined with three spending bills into a minibus package now headed to the House.

Whether the Senate will reach that point has been up in the air throughout most of last week and even earlier today. On Monday, lawmakers were in good shape after passing the package’s first procedural test, but concerns over objections and other procedural maneuvers threatened to derail the process.

“I think everyone is very united [behind] “This bill. We want to reopen the government,” said Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his party have demanded throughout the shutdown that they would not vote to reopen the government unless they received a hard deal on the end of Obamacare subsidies.

But that deal, or at least the one Democrats wanted, never materialized. Instead, eight Senate Democrats accepted Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s offer from the start: ensuring a vote on legislation dealing with the benefits.

The Senate hopes to clear procedural hurdles in an attempt to reopen the government

A group of Senate Democrats crossed the aisle to join Republicans in their bid to reopen the government and provided enough votes to get things moving as the shutdown enters its 41st day. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Thune reiterated his promise and indicated that the vote would take place “no later than the second week of December.” The support is scheduled to end by the end of the year.

“We have senators, both Democrats and Republicans, who are eager to work to address this crisis in a bipartisan way,” he said. “These senators are not interested in political games, they are interested in finding real ways to address health care costs for American families. We also have a president who is willing to sit down and work on this issue.”

However, Senate Democrats did not leave completely empty-handed.

Included in the renewed CR, which will reopen the government through Jan. 30, is a rollback of the Trump administration’s firings of furloughed federal workers, a deal to ensure furloughed workers get their paychecks and future protections for federal employees during shutdowns.

“This was the only deal on the table,” said Senator Jeanne Shaheen, one of the eight who crossed the aisle to support the package. “It was our best opportunity to reopen the government and immediately begin negotiations to extend the working period,” he added. [Obamacare] “Tax breaks that tens of millions of Americans rely on to cut costs.”

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, one of eight Senate Democrats who broke with Schumer, said it was clear Republicans would not budge on their position that health care would be handled after the government reopens.

But it wasn’t the guarantee of a vote on expiring benefits that prompted him to defect, it was the promise that there would be protections for federal employees.

Senate Democrats’ Cave Opens Way to Reopen Government

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., briefs the media on the timeline for potentially ending the government shutdown at the Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, November 10, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

“If you wait another week, they will get hurt more, another month or more,” Keane said. “So what pushed me over the line was the pledge they were able to give to federal employees.”

For the House side, GOP leaders appear eager to move quickly to end the protracted shutdown.

Earlier Monday, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told Fox News Digital that he would bring the House back into session “immediately” after the Senate passes the legislation.

He later told House Republicans in a lawmakers-only phone call that he expected a vote in their chamber midweek at the earliest, Fox News Digital was told.

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“We will plan to vote, and be here, at least by Wednesday,” Johnson said. “It’s possible that things will change a little later in the week, but right now we think we’re on track to vote on Wednesday. So we need you here.”

Johnson indicated that the House of Representatives would not move to speed up legislation by suspending the rules, which would bypass procedural hurdles in exchange for raising the approval threshold to two-thirds of the House.

It’s not a surprising move given House Democratic leaders’ opposition to the bill.

But he said the House Rules Committee should be ready to act by Tuesday at the earliest.