WASHINGTON — The Senate approved a procedural vote advancing a compromise bill to reopen the government until the end of January, marking the first step toward ending the record-long shutdown after weeks of negotiations.
Eight Democrats joined nearly all Republicans to greenlight a bill to temporarily reopen the government, just barely reaching the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome a filibuster that has plagued the Senate for nearly seven weeks. The vote is the first of three procedural hurdles senators must overcome before voting on final passage of the bill.
The vote succeeded after being open for more than two hours as Republicans waited for Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, to arrive to the Capitol. Cornyn was traveling back from Texas and landed at the airport after the vote already opened.
During that two-hour holding period, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, engaged in conversations on the floor with Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., alongside Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., and Rick Scott, R-Fla. The trio withheld their votes until they reached some agreement, although details of that conversation are not clear.
Lee ultimately voted in favor of the legislation, as did Utah Sen. John Curtis.
The movement on Sunday does not explicitly approve language to end the shutdown or even include the spending legislation making its way through the Senate. But it’s an important step toward getting that framework to the Senate floor by the end of this week to reopen the government and pass some full-year spending bills.
The Senate advanced the Republican-led spending resolution already passed by the House that would reopen the government until mid-November — the same bill that has already been rejected by Senate Democrats 14 times. But this time around, senators will introduce what is known as a substitute amendment to replace the existing text with the new spending plan, a procedural vote that could be scheduled as early as Monday morning.
That second hurdle would also require 60 votes, meaning Democrats would again need to cross party lines to ensure its survival. If passed, the final 60-vote procedural hurdle to end debate would come likely a day or two later.
The new spending package that will be inserted into the legislative vehicle would fund the entire government until Jan. 30 and include the full-year appropriations bills for the legislative branch, the Agriculture Department, and military construction and veterans affairs for the rest of the 2026 fiscal year. Bill text for that three-bill minibus package was released on Sunday afternoon.
The framework is the result of weekslong negotiations between Democrats and Republicans in the Senate and offers the first real glimmer of hope that the shutdown could end in the coming days.
Senate Democrats met for more than two hours Sunday evening to discuss the new spending resolution, which included major concessions from Republicans to reverse shutdown layoffs.
The resolution contained language to reinstate federal workers who were laid off by the Trump administration due to the shutdown and provide back pay for those removed from their positions. That provision was a key win for some moderate Democrats looking for policy wins in the shutdown fight.
But there are still some obstacles that lawmakers must overcome.
There is currently no plan to fast-track the procedural votes, so it could take days before the Senate reaches a final vote to pass the spending resolution. Any one senator could object to an expedited schedule, which could come from a handful of Senate Democrats upset about the lack of language permanently extending COVID-era Obamacare subsidies.
Democrats were offered a handshake agreement to vote on a one-year extension for those tax credits at a later time in exchange for their support on reopening the government now. That deal was sufficient for the eight Democrats who voted to support advancing the framework on Sunday.
But a number of Democratic senators rejected that premise, arguing it was not enough to prevent the Obamacare subsidies from expiring at the end of this year. As a result, those Democrats could delay action on the full spending resolution as an act of rebellion.
“My own thought is that it would be a horrific mistake to cave in to Trump right now,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent who caucuses with Democrats, told reporters on Sunday. “And I think it would be a policy and political disaster for the Democrats to cave.”
Even if the Senate does pass the bill by the end of this week, it still must go back to the House for approval before it can be sent to President Donald Trump for his signature. A number of House Democrats have already said they’d reject the package without a one-year extension on the Obamacare credits — especially after House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., refused to promise any vote at all even if the Senate does.
“That’s not a deal,” Rep. Ritchie Torres, the first House Democrat to oppose the framework, said in a post on X. “It’s an unconditional surrender that abandons the 24 million Americans whose health care premiums are about to double.”
Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., also came out against the package on Sunday, signaling party leadership will whip against it in the House.
“America is far too expensive. We will not support spending legislation advanced by Senate Republicans that fails to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits,” Jeffries said in a statement. “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.”
Their support could be necessary in the narrowly divided House, especially if House conservatives oppose the framework due to language that would reverse the shutdown-era layoffs of federal workers. That was another 11th-hour deal made with Democrats to secure their support on Sunday.
Some Republicans in the House Freedom Caucus could object to that, meaning Johnson will rely on some centrist Democrats to cross party lines.
The movement during the rare weekend Senate session — the first time senators have met over the weekend during the shutdown — sets the stage for the government to be reopened by the end of this week.
The shutdown has already made history as the longest closure in U.S. history as it surpassed its 40th day on Sunday.