The deal struck between Senate Republicans and Democrats to reopen the government allows for federal paychecks and other funding components to resume with senators also set to hold a vote on health care tax credits.
On Monday, the Senate voted 60-40 to pass a bill to fund military construction, Veterans Affairs, the Department of Agriculture and the legislative branch through Sept. 30 of next year — and the rest of government through Jan. 30.
The bill passed the Senate after eight Democrats joined the GOP in the vote. The House will reconvene on Wednesday to vote on the bill.
Throughout the duration of the shutdown, Democrats maintained that Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits expiring at the end of the year needed to be extended. While the current appropriations bill says nothing about extending those subsidies, Senate Republicans agreed to hold a vote on extending the subsidies.
The current deal would allow for a vote to be held during the second week of December. Without these tax credits, prices are expected to jump, with insurance customers 65 years and older and making $60,000 or more possibly paying $920 more a month without those ACA subsidies.
With Republicans largely against ObamaCare in general, the measure is not expected to pass in the Senate.
The continuing resolution allows the government to be funded until Jan. 30 and gives lawmakers time to craft full-year spending bills.
The Senate deal also carries three yearlong funding bills collectively called a “minibus.” One bill funds the Department of Agriculture, including full funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), while another goes toward military construction and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Another facet of the “minibus” allows for salaries and allowances to go toward the legislative branch.
The end of the shutdown would allow furloughed federal workers to return to work and backpay to go to both furloughed workers and employees who continued working through the shutdown.
The deal would also reverse the Trump administration’s layoffs during the shutdown. Any layoffs that were “proposed, noticed, initiated, executed, implemented, or otherwise taken by an Executive Agency between October 1, 2025, and the date of enactment, shall have no force or effect,” the resolution states.
The resolution prohibits federal funds from being “used to initiate, carry out, implement, or otherwise notice a reduction in force to reduce the number of employees within any department, agency, or office of the Federal Government” until Jan. 30.
A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from laying off federal employees during the shutdown in early October. The resolution orders any federal worker who was laid off to “be returned to employment status as of September 30, 2025, without interruption.”
While the agreement is expected to bring to an end the record-length 42-days-and-counting-long shutdown, with President Trump having said he would “abide by the deal” once it reaches his desk, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) declared his opposition to the resolution.
“We will not support spending legislation advanced by Senate Republicans that fails to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits,” Jeffries said in a post on the social platform X. “We will fight the GOP bill in the House of Representatives, where Mike Johnson will be compelled to end the seven week Republican taxpayer-funded vacation.”