US President Donald Trump signed legislation on Wednesday ending the longest government shutdown in US history, after the House of Representatives voted to restart suspended food aid, pay hundreds of thousands of federal workers and revive air traffic control.
The Republican-controlled House passed the package by a vote of 222 to 209, with Trump’s support largely keeping his party together despite fierce opposition from Democrats, who are angry that a 43-day gridlock launched by their colleagues in the Senate failed to secure a deal to extend federal health insurance subsidies.
Trump’s signature bill, approved by the Senate earlier this week, will put federal workers back on the job as early as Thursday, although it is unclear how soon full government services and operations will resume.
That would extend funding through Jan. 30, and the federal government remains on track to continue adding about $1.8 trillion a year to its $38 trillion debt.
“I feel like I’ve just lived through an episode of Seinfeld. We’ve just gone 40 days and I still don’t know what the plot was,” said Republican Rep. David Schweikert of Arizona, comparing the behavior of lawmakers to mishaps in the popular 1990s American sitcom.
“I really thought this would last for 48 hours: people would have their moment of rage and we’d get back to work.” He added: “What will happen now that anger has become politics?”
The end of the blockade gives some hope that services critical to air travel will recover by the critical Thanksgiving travel wave, which is just two weeks away. Restoring food aid to millions of families could also free up room in household budgets for spending as the Christmas shopping season kicks into full gear.
It also means the resumption of data releases on the US economy by key statistical agencies in the coming days. The lack of data has left investors, policy makers and households largely in the dark about the labor market, inflation, consumption and economic growth in general.
However, some gaps in the data are likely to be permanent, with the White House saying the employment and consumer price index reports for the month of October may never be released.
Many economists estimate the shutdown has reduced gross domestic product by more than a tenth of a percentage point during each of the roughly six weeks of shutdowns, though most of the lost is expected to be recovered in the coming months.
The vote came eight days after Democrats won several key elections that many in the party saw as boosting their chances of getting an extension of health insurance subsidies, which expire at the end of the year.
Although the agreement sets up a vote on those subsidies in the Senate in December, House Speaker Mike Johnson made no such pledge in the House.
Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill, who was chosen to be New Jersey’s next governor last week, spoke out against the funding bill in her final speech on the House floor before she resigns next week, urging her colleagues to oppose the Trump administration.
“Colleagues, don’t let this body become the ceremonial red stamp of an administration that is taking food away from children and cutting health care,” Sherrill said. “Americans, stay strong. As we say in the Navy, don’t abandon ship.”
Despite mutual accusations, neither party seems to have achieved a clear victory. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday found that 50 percent of Americans blame Republicans for the blockade, while 47 percent blame Democrats.
