WASHINGTON, Nov 13 — A deal to end the longest government shutdown in US history cleared Congress yesterday, after the House of Representatives voted to restart disrupted food assistance, pay hundreds of thousands of federal workers and revive a hobbled air-traffic control system.
The Republican-controlled chamber passed the package by a vote of 222-209, with President Donald Trump's support largely keeping his party together in the face of vehement opposition from.
The bill has already passed the Senate and the White House said Trump will sign it into law later on Wednesday (US time), ending the shutdown.
It would extend funding through January 30, leaving the federal government on a path to keep adding about US$1.8 trillion a year to its US$38 trillion (about RM115 trillion) in debt.
"I feel like I just lived a Seinfeld episode. We just spent 40 days and I still don't know what the plotline was," said Republican Representative David Schweikert of Arizona, likening Congress' handling of the shutdown to the misadventures in a popular 1990s US sitcom.
"I really thought this would be like 48 hours: people will have their piece, they'll get a moment to have a temper tantrum, and we'll get back to work."
He added: "What's happened now when rage is policy?"
'Don't give up the ship'
The vote came eight days after Democrats won several high-profile elections that many in the party thought strengthened their odds of winning an extension of health insurance subsidies, which are due to expire at the end of the year. While the deal sets up a December vote on those subsidies in the Senate, Speaker Mike Johnson has made no such promise in the House.
Democratic Representative Mikie Sherrill, who last week was elected as New Jersey's next governor, spoke against the funding bill in her last speech on the US House floor before she resigns from Congress next week, encouraging her colleagues to stand up to Trump's administration.
"To my colleagues: Do not let this body become a ceremonial red stamp from an administration that takes food away from children and rips away healthcare," Sherrill said.
"To the country: Stand strong. As we say in the Navy, don't give up the ship."
No clear winners
Despite the recriminations, neither party appears to have won a clear victory. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday found that 50 per cent of Americans blamed Republicans for the shutdown, while 47 per cent blamed Democrats.
The vote came on the Republican-controlled House's first day in session since mid-September, a long recess intended to put pressure on Democrats. The chamber's return also set the clock ticking on a vote to release all unclassified records related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, something Johnson and Trump have resisted up to now.
