Senators reach deal to reopen the government through January

The government shutdown may be on the verge of ending.

Enough Senate Democrats are willing to vote for a spending package to reopen the government through January in exchange for a vote next month on extending enhanced Obamacare subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year.

Multiple sources familiar with the deal confirmed to The Washington Times that the Senate should have at least 60 votes to clear a filibuster on the spending package. A first procedural vote was expected as soon as Sunday night.

That vote, which had not been scheduled as of press time, will begin the process of ending the 40-day government shutdown, which broke the record for the longest in history on Wednesday.

It will still take at least a few days to process the deal through the House and Senate, so the government will not be reopened until Tuesday or Wednesday at the earliest.

Democrats secured a provision in the spending package to require the Trump administration to reinstate thousands of federal employees it laid off during the shutdown and provide them with back pay.

Even so, a vast majority of Senate Democrats are planning to vote against the measure because it does not contain an extension of the enhanced Obamacare premium tax credits, which help lower costs for consumers purchasing insurance on the program’s marketplaces.

The premium tax credits first created in the Affordable Care Act do not expire, but expanded COVID-19 pandemic versions that Democrats enacted sunset on Dec. 31.

Those enhancements cap out-of-pocket costs at 8.5% of household income and cover families that earn more than 400% of the federal poverty level, currently $62,600 for a single person or $128,600 for a family of four.

“I have been clear on this from the beginning: I will not turn my back on the 24 million Americans who will see their premiums more than double if we don’t extend these tax credits,” Sen. Ruben Gallego, Arizona Democrat, said on social media.

Several House Democrats also panned the deal.

Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York issued a statement saying his caucus “will fight the GOP bill in the House of Representatives” because it does not extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits.

Democrats who support the deal promising an ACA vote in December expect Republicans to act or face the political consequences of letting the enhanced subsidies expire.

“Lawmakers know their constituents expect them to vote for it, and if they don’t, they could very well be replaced at the ballot box by someone who will,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, Virginia Democrat.

Most Senate Democrats have been filibustering a House-passed stopgap bill to fund the government through Nov. 21 in an effort to persuade Republicans to negotiate on the Obamacare subsidies.

Republicans have refused to negotiate while the government is shut down but have said they would hold bipartisan talks as soon as Democrats vote to reopen it.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, South Dakota Republican, has said for weeks that the best he could promise Democrats is a vote on extending the subsidies after the government is reopened, not as an outcome.

Democrats held out in the hope of a result and on Friday offered to end the shutdown if Republicans added a one-year extension of the enhanced Obamacare premium subsidies to the spending package needed to reopen the government.

Republicans rejected that as a “nonstarter.” They said they would not let Democrats hold government funding “hostage” to secure unrelated policy demands.

They also said the subsidies need to be overhauled so government money isn’t used to pad the profits of insurance companies or pay for plans that cover abortions.

Bipartisan negotiations continued through the weekend. Ultimately, enough Democrats agreed to vote to reopen the government based on Mr. Thune’s promise to hold a Senate vote on the Obamacare subsidies in December, multiple sources told The Times.

The exact parameters of that December vote are unclear. Still, it appears bipartisan negotiations would take place after the government is reopened to determine whether the two parties can reach an Obamacare deal that can pass both chambers.

Mr. Thune has said he would allow Democrats a vote on any Obamacare subsidy extension bill they prefer. If a bipartisan deal does not come together, they could still secure a vote; however, a partisan version would likely fail.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, has said he would not promise a vote in his chamber.

President Trump is calling on Republicans to prevent the subsidies from going directly to the insurance companies. Instead, he wants to give money to consumers to spend on health care plans of their choice.

Such a solution would be complicated to implement, with Obamacare enrollment already underway, and could mean consumers would have to pay higher premiums up front before receiving government assistance.

Although the details of the Obamacare deal are far from finalized, Senate negotiators have agreed on a spending package that would keep the government open for at least a few months.

The Senate is planning to amend the House-passed stopgap to replace the Nov. 21 deadline with a Jan. 30 date.

The new measure will include three full-year fiscal 2026 spending bills that fund the legislative branch and the departments of Agriculture and Veterans Affairs.

The remaining nine annual spending bills will be temporarily funded through the Jan. 30 stopgap date at fiscal 2025 levels, allowing more time for negotiations on full-year bills.

The outstanding bills include funding for the departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Energy, and Transportation.

The Senate could clear the spending package as soon as Sunday night if all 100 senators consent to a time agreement. If anyone objects, it will take a few days for the bill to be processed in the Senate.

In either case, the House then would need to vote on the amended bill. Republican leaders have said they would give members at least 48 hours’ notice to return to Washington.

That means the earliest the government would reopen is Tuesday or Wednesday.

Because the spending package includes a full year of funding for the Department of Agriculture, it will reinstate full food stamp benefits that the Trump administration had paused this month because of the shutdown.

The issue has been litigated in court. A Rhode Island federal judge ordered the Trump administration to distribute full payments of food stamp benefits, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

On Friday, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson temporarily blocked a lower court’s order for 48 hours to allow the U.S. Court of Appeals to review the decision.

The decision left the 42 million low-income individuals who depend on SNAP benefits to buy groceries in limbo. The Trump administration immediately responded by directing states to halt full funding of the program, warning that they would face financial penalties.

If the government reopens, the court case will become moot.

• Jeff Mordock and Stephen Dinan contributed to this report.