US lawmakers pass spending bill to end record government shutdown

The shutdown fight has weighed on the US economy. The Congressional Budget Office last month projected a six-week government closure would lower real gross domestic product growth in the current quarter by 1.5 percentage points. A bit more than half of the loss may be recouped early next year as federal programs resume and government employees receive back pay, the CBO forecast.

Lingering Pain

Delta Air Lines Inc. chief executive Ed Bastian told Bloomberg Television Wednesday that shutdown-related flight cancellations will hurt the air carrier’s quarterly earnings. The airline expects to return to normal operations in time for the busy Thanksgiving holiday.

Many of the 42 million low-income Americans covered by the federal food stamp program also have been denied their November benefits, amid a legal battle between the Trump administration and states over whether food assistance can continue during a shutdown.

Food aid won’t immediately snap back — states say they need as long as a week to update their beneficiary files and load debit cards. And with only two major card vendors, there could be bottlenecks as every state looks to replenish benefits all at once.

Read more: Shutdown’s End Kicks Off Long Process of Rebooting US Government

Most federal workers have not been paid in more than a month — regardless of whether they have been working — though the White House found legally controversial ways to pay military troops during the shutdown.

Financial markets’ visibility into the state of the economy also has been clouded because the government stopped publishing key economic data during the shutdown. The jobs and the consumer price index reports for October are unlikely to be released due to the government shutdown, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday.

Read more: US Economic Data Releases Delayed by Government Shutdown

The Bureau of Labor Statistics is expected to release a calendar in the coming days with updated release dates for delayed economic data.

Democrats’ Failure

Trump claimed the shutdown’s ending as a victory in comments to reporters earlier this week. Still, the hardships from prior shutdowns have typically been quickly forgotten and may not be a factor in the 2026 midterm congressional elections.

The shutdown is ending in the same way past clashes have since shutdowns became common in the late 1970s:  the party seeking to leverage a shutdown for policy wins has backed down in the face of public pressure.

“It was completely and utterly foolish and pointless in the end, as we said all along,” Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters before the funding package passed.

Senate Democrats deployed procedural obstacles to block a Republican temporary funding package to keep the government open, leveraging Senate rules that require 60 votes to overcome determined opposition.

Ultimately, seven Senate Democrats and one Democratic-aligned independent broke with the rest of the party to back a new stopgap spending bill in exchange for a Senate vote on extending Obamacare subsidies by the middle of December.

Yet there is no guarantee the subsidy extension will pass. Even if it does, Johnson has pointedly refused to promise any House vote on the matter at all. That raises the prospect that the policy fight will turn into a political issue for the 2026 midterm elections.

“House Democrats are here to continue to engage in this struggle to decisively address the Republican health care crisis,” Jeffries told reporters before leading his caucus to oppose reopening the government.

Next Funding Deadline

The interim spending package funds most of the government through Jan. 30, raising the prospected of another shutdown fight at that time.

Food stamp benefits wouldn’t be at risk next time because the stopgap funds that program through Sept. 30. The Agriculture Department, Veterans Affairs department, Food and Drug Administration, military construction projects and Congress itself are also funded through Sept. 30.

The funding bill also bans federal layoffs through Jan. 30, a demand of Senator Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat who represents many government employees in the Washington suburbs and joined with other centrists to support the stopgap.

Progressive groups have been infuriated by the centrist Democrats’ abandonment of the party’s health care demands in the shutdown fight.  Groups like MoveOn are also calling for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to step down, although there is no sign that members of his caucus are joining in that effort.

Schumer opposed the stopgap and wanted to fight on, his allies say.