(Adnkronos) – The measure to end the longest federal government shutdown in United States history passed thanks to the votes of eight Democratic senators who voted with Republicans, and against the instructions of their party leaders, in a decisive procedural vote. For the actual reopening of the government, it will still be necessary to wait for the measure to be discussed and definitively voted on in the Senate, with a subsequent passage to the House before Donald Trump’s signature, who said he was certain that the end of the shutdown “is near”.
The vote came after negotiations conducted over the weekend – while the crisis caused by the Trump administration’s decision to cut thousands of flights, plunging major airports into chaos, and the standoff over food stamps denied by the Trump administration to millions of poorer Americans, worsened – by the group of Democratic senators to reach an agreement that caused a deep split within the party. The leaders of the House and Senate, Hakeem Jeffries and Charles Schumer, had in fact opposed the agreement because it does not contain the main request put forward by Democrats throughout these weeks: the renewal of federal subsidies for Obamacare.
“The healthcare crisis is so severe, urgent, and devastating for families that I cannot in good faith support it,” Schumer said in the chamber, a position supported by most of his colleagues. “I think it’s a terrible mistake,” Elizabeth Warren said last night at the end of a two-hour meeting with colleagues, referring to the agreement negotiated by centrist Democrats.
The agreement secures funding and thus the opening of the federal government until next January 30. It also contains the repeal, requested by Democrats, of the 4,000 layoffs made by the Trump administration during the shutdown and prevents further ones between now and January. Furthermore, funds for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the food stamp program, are secured until next September. The Trump administration claims it does not have to pay for these during the shutdown, even though during previous closures, food stamps vital for 42 million Americans had never been blocked.
Regarding federal subsidies for Obamacare, whose expiration at the end of the year risks causing a surge in healthcare costs for millions of Americans who managed to obtain it through the historic Affordable Care Act signed by Barack Obama, Republicans have merely committed to allowing a floor vote in December for its renewal. Democrats denounce this as too generic a commitment, hiding the intention to sink the measure in the Republican-controlled Congress.
Angus King, the independent senator from Maine who votes with Democrats, defended his and his seven colleagues’ decision by saying that such a long shutdown has become an unbearable burden for Americans.” Meanwhile, Tim Kaine, the senator from Virginia whose vote was decisive in approving the agreement, emphasized that the measure “will protect federal employees from unjustified layoffs, reinstate those who were illegally laid off during the shutdown, and ensure that federal employees receive the salaries that have been suspended.”
