Donald Trump on Thursday signed a bill ending the longest government shutdown in the history of the United States, 43 days that paralysed Washington and left hundreds of thousands of workers unpaid.
Signing
the bill, the US President said, “I just want to tell you the country has never been in better shape. We went through this short-term disaster with the Democrats because they thought it would be good politically.”
“…And it’s an honour now to sign this incredible bill and get our country working again,” Trump said.
This came hours after the bill was cleared by Congress, as 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 bill signed by Trump funds military construction, veterans’ affairs, the Department of Agriculture and Congress itself through next fall, and the rest of the government through the end of January.
Around 670,000 furloughed civil servants will report back to work, and a similar number who were kept at their posts with no compensation, including more than 60,000 air traffic controllers and airport security staff, will get back pay.
The deal also restores federal workers fired by Trump during the shutdown, while air travel that has been disrupted across the country will gradually return to normal.
For more than five weeks, Democrats held firm on refusing to reopen the government unless Trump agreed to extend pandemic-era tax credits that made health insurance affordable for millions of Americans.
Election victories in multiple states last week gave Democrats further encouragement and a reinvigorated sense of purpose.
However, a group of eight Senate moderates broke ranks to cut a deal with Republicans that offers a vote in the upper chamber on health care subsidies, but no floor time in the House and no guarantee of action.
The Republican-controlled chamber passed the package by a vote of 222-209, with Donald Trump’s support largely keeping his party together in the face of vehement opposition from House Democrats.
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.
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,” she added.
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.
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