Trump signs bill to end record shutdown

WASHINGTON — United States President Donald Trump signed a bill on Wednesday to end a record 43-day shutdown that paralyzed Washington and left hundreds of thousands of workers unpaid while Republicans and Democrats played a high-stakes blame game.

The Republican-led House of Representatives voted largely along party lines to approve a Senate-passed package that will reopen federal departments and agencies, as many Democrats fume over what they see as a capitulation by party leaders.

Trump lashed out at Democrats as he put his signature to the bill later in the Oval Office, urging people to remember the chaos when voting in hotly contested US midterm elections in a year's time.

"Today we are sending a clear message that we will never give in to extortion," Trump said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson had earlier pointed the finger at the minority party in a floor speech before the vote.

"They knew that it would cause pain, and they did it anyway," he said. "The whole exercise was pointless. It was wrong and it was cruel."

The package 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 members — 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.

Trump has accused Democrats of costing the country $1.5 trillion. While the full financial toll of the shutdown has yet to be determined, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that it has resulted in $14 billion in lost economic growth.

Johnson and his Republicans had almost no room for error as their majority is down to two votes.

Holding the line

Democratic leadership — furious over what they see as their Senate colleagues folding — had urged members to vote no and all but a handful held the line.

Although polling showed the public mostly on the Democrats' side throughout the standoff, Republicans are widely seen as having done better since its conclusion.

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 people.

Election victories in multiple states last week gave Democrats further encouragement and a renewed 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 healthcare subsidies, but no floor time in the House and no guarantee of action.

Democrats are now deep in a painful reckoning over how their tough stance crumbled without yielding any notable wins.

Democratic leadership is arguing that, while their healthcare demands went largely unheard, they were able to shine the spotlight on an issue they hope will power them to victory in next year's midterm elections.

"Over the last several weeks, we have elevated successfully the issue of the Republican healthcare crisis, and we're not backing away from it," House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told MSNBC.

However, his Senate counterpart Chuck Schumer is facing a backlash from the fractious progressive base for failing to keep his members unified, with a handful of House Democrats calling for his resignation.

Outside Washington, some of the party's hottest prospects for the 2028 presidential nomination added their own voices to the chorus of opprobrium.

California Governor Gavin Newsom called the agreement "pathetic", while his Illinois counterpart JB Pritzker said it amounted to an "empty promise".

Agencies via Xinhua