The voting series is scheduled to begin Wednesday at 4 p.m.
Lawmakers return to Washington, D.C., for shutdown vote, facing travel challenges
Flight delays and subzero temperatures are plaguing lawmakers trying to get to Washington, D.C., to vote on a government shutdown.
WASHINGTON – The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on Wednesday, Nov. 12, on a funding measure to end the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history.
The bill is expected to pass and then go to President Donald Trump’s desk, who has said he will approve it. A small group of Senate Democrats announced Sunday night that they had negotiated a deal with Republicans and the White House to resolve the funding crisis.
“The agreement is very good,” the president said Monday.
If lawmakers are able to avoid widespread flight disruptions and return to Washington, it would be the penultimate step through a political turmoil that has lasted more than a month and left millions of Americans unable to afford food, travel and rely on myriad government services.
This history-making debacle sharply divided Washington, especially Congressional Democrats. With the Republican concession, the latest deal would reverse President Trump’s recent layoffs of thousands of federal workers amid the government shutdown, but it would not extend expired Affordable Care Act aid, which Democrats had been demanding for weeks.
Instead, the bill simply guarantees a single vote on health care subsidies in December, before the credits expire at the end of the year and health insurance premiums skyrocket. It’s unclear whether enough Republicans support expanded funding for passage in the Senate, and Speaker Mike Johnson has not committed to holding a vote in the House.
When did the shutdown begin?
The federal government shutdown began shortly after midnight on Oct. 1 after Democrats and Republicans clashed over extending expired health benefits for millions of Americans.
On Nov. 5, it became the longest shutdown in U.S. history, bypassing the previous shutdown in 2019 during the Trump administration. The measure lasted 35 days and cost the economy about $3 billion, or 0.02% of GDP, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
-Kathryn Palmer
House Democratic leaders urge ‘no’ vote on government reopening bill
House Democratic leaders urged lawmakers to vote against a Senate bill to reopen the government, as lawmakers warn that a lack of additional health care funding could leave millions without health insurance.
Most Democrats in the House and Senate oppose temporary funding measures to keep the government running. Democrats called for restoring spending cuts to Medicaid and extending subsidies under the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) that are set to expire on Dec. 31.
However, eight senators who caucus with Democrats joined Republicans in approving the bill in the Senate. The bill cleared a key hurdle overnight when the House Rules Committee agreed to rules on how to consider the bill on Nov. 12.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) joined other lawmakers in proposing an amendment to extend Obamacare subsidies for three years, but the proposal failed.
House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) sent a message to her colleagues encouraging them to vote “no” on the bill.
“This doesn’t have to happen to American citizens. This is a choice,” Clark told the Rules Committee. “Democrats have been offering course corrections all year long. Day after day, we’ve given them a chance to change course.”
–Bert Jansen
Poll: Many Americans want Democrats to stick with government shutdown
A new poll finds that 41% of Americans believe Democrats should not vote to fund the government unless the bill includes the health care reform they have been demanding.
The Economist/YouGov poll of U.S. adults released on November 11 comes after eight members of the Senate Democratic caucus voted with Republicans in favor of the government reopening bill. The House is scheduled to vote today on a bill that does not include an extension of health care subsidies that expire at the end of the year.
Democrats have fought for weeks to include an extension of the Affordable Care Act’s premium subsidies in the federal funding bill, but many on the left have criticized the compromise funding bill as insufficient without an extension.
The survey also found that 36% of Americans blame Republicans in Congress more for the government shutdown, while 34% blame Democrats more and 24% blame both parties equally.
-Zack Anderson
When will the House vote?
The House will convene at noon for the first time since before the shutdown began on Oct. 1, and consideration of the bill to end the shutdown is expected to begin around 4 p.m.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana) predicted that the first of several votes would be cast around 5:10 p.m., and that voting should be completed by 7:15 p.m.
The initial debate and voting will set the rules that will govern the debate. Rules require one hour of deliberation on the Senate version of the bill. The bill would reopen government agencies until January 30 and provide federal workers with back pay due to the government shutdown.
Most Democrats still oppose the bill for failing to extend subsidies that are set to expire Dec. 31 under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
Republican Congressional leaders agreed to negotiate a possible extension after the shutdown ends. A Senate vote on the possible bill is expected to take place in the second week of December.
–Bert Jansen
At a news conference Tuesday in Chicago, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy urged the House to follow the Senate’s lead and vote to lift the shutdown.
Mr Duffy warned that if the House fails to act and the government remains shut down, there will be dire consequences for the nation’s air traffic system. He said some airlines may choose to suspend operations.
“If the House doesn’t act, I think we’re going to see more than 10% disruption and probably airlines grounding planes completely,” Duffy said at a news conference at O’Hare International Airport. “That’s how serious this is.”
“If the House doesn’t pass this bill, I think Saturday, Sunday and Monday will be boring,” he later added. “It was beautiful. It could get worse than that.”
Lawmakers are choosing to carpool or ride bikes to get to the polls in time
One Republican lawmaker was so worried about his flight being delayed that he chose to drive his motorcycle about 950 miles back to the nation’s capital instead of going all the way to the airport.
Congressman Derrick Van Orden left his home state of Wisconsin on Monday night for a nearly 15-hour voyage in subzero temperatures.
“Derrick, you might be wondering why you’re riding a Harley-Davidson when it’s 32 degrees outside,” he said in a video posted to social media from somewhere along the Mississippi River. “The planes are so unreliable because they shut down the government, the Democratic Party.”
Republican Rep. Rick Crawford of Arkansas and Rep. Trent Kelly of Mississippi decided to carpool back to the nation’s capital.
