The US Senate appears to be close to achieving a breakthrough that could end the government shutdown (close). This Sunday, Sen. John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota and the majority leader, told reporters that the spending agreement “has come to fruition” and could be voted on as early as tonight. According to a Republican consultant to CNN, the Senate is expected to vote on the agreement between 10:30 pm and 11 pm (Brasilia time) on Sunday.
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According to the radio, at least eight centrist Democratic senators have reached an understanding with Republican leaders in the Senate and the White House to reopen the government, in exchange for a future vote on extending expanded benefits under the Affordable Care Act — a measure that faces resistance within the Democratic Party itself. If approved, the agreement will end the longest strike in American history.
Republicans, who control 53 votes in the Senate, have tried unsuccessfully in recent weeks to convince enough Democrats to pass the stopgap spending bill. So far, they have received the support of just three members of the Democratic caucus — not enough to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to move forward.
Thune’s statements suggest he believes his party is close to getting enough support from Democrats to move forward. That would be a notable development, especially given that Republicans have refused to meet Democrats’ main demand in the fight against the government shutdown: extending health insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, which expire at the end of the year.
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Thune had been expressing hope for days that an agreement would be reached, and it was not clear whether Democrats, who were divided over how to proceed, would be willing to join Republicans in moving forward. They were meeting Sunday night to discuss next steps, even as the top House Democrat expressed anger over the emerging deal. In an angry statement, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the minority leader, said House Democrats oppose any such deal.
“It now appears that Senate Republicans will send to the House a spending bill that does not extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits,” Jeffries said in a statement, indicating that he believes the proposal has enough Democratic support to move forward. He added: “Donald Trump and the Republican Party are responsible for the toxic situation they have created in our country, and the American people know that.”
Thune’s comments, during a rare Sunday session as the shutdown continues into its 40th day, followed intense discussions among a bipartisan group of moderate senators seeking a path to reopening the government.
With a potential deal looming, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, said he would vote to reopen the government after securing a provision in a short-term spending bill to return laid-off federal employees to their jobs and ensure they get back pay.
“This legislation will protect federal employees from wrongful termination, reinstate those who were wrongfully terminated during the shutdown, and ensure federal employees receive back pay as required by the law I passed in 2019,” Kaine said in a statement. “This is a crucial step.”
The core of the deal that has emerged in the Senate is a spending package — quietly negotiated by moderates in both parties — that includes a new stopgap measure to fund the government through January, as well as three separate spending measures to cover programs related to agriculture, military construction and legislatures through most of 2026.
Senate Budget Committee leaders on Sunday released the stopgap funding measure, which includes provisions Democrats have been quietly pushing to reverse President Trump’s federal layoffs during the government shutdown and prevent more mass layoffs through January. The three individual spending bills delete most of the deep cuts Trump proposed in his budget this year.
Trump’s proposal, for example, would have eliminated the Food for Peace program, which sends surplus American crops to communities affected by hunger and famine around the world. The Senate legislation allocates US$1.2 billion (R$6.4 billion) to the program, which many Republicans from important agricultural states are championing.
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Senate negotiators also rejected a proposal from House Republicans to cut in half funding for the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a century-old agency created to help Congress monitor federal spending. The Government Accountability Office has ruled seven times this year that Trump’s actions violate rules that prevent him from unilaterally canceling funding, and the agency is allowed under current law to sue the president and force him to release illegally withheld funds.
Instead, the senators responsible for allocating the money proposed leaving GAO funding intact and eliminating a provision proposed by their colleagues in the House that seeks to prevent the agency from suing the White House in the future.
Democrats have spent weeks demanding that Republicans agree to permanently extend health insurance subsidies in exchange for their votes to fund the government, but the GOP has refused to meet that condition. On Friday, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, scaled back that requirement, saying Democrats would vote to reopen the government if the legislation included extending health care tax credits for just one year. Republicans immediately rejected the proposal, considering it not possible.
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As details of the potential deal became clearer Sunday night, Democrats across the ideological spectrum were already voicing serious concerns. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent who sides with Democrats, said as he entered the session that a vote to reopen the government without a guaranteed extension of health care support “would be a political disaster.”
Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, a Democrat who was initially involved in the bipartisan negotiations, was also not inclined to support such a measure.
– I have always said that we need to do something concrete about health, and it is difficult to understand how this happened – she said.
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