House advances bill to end government shutdown with hours until final vote

The record-breaking U.S. government shutdown appears to be on a glide path to finally ending after 43 days.

Federal funding legislation aimed at opening the government survived a key test vote in the House later Wednesday, teeing it up for final passage in a matter of hours.

That means the bill could hit President Donald Trump’s desk as soon as Wednesday night, likely ending what has been the longest shutdown in U.S. history.

The White House announced that Trump would sign the bill in a statement of administration policy obtained by Fox News Digital.

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“The Administration urges every Member of Congress to support this responsible, good faith product to finally put an end to the longest shutdown in history,” the statement read.

The bill advanced through a procedural hurdle known as a rule vote, which is where lawmakers decide whether to allow legislation to get debated before a final vote on passage.

Rule votes generally fall along partisan lines and are not an indication of whether a bill will be bipartisan.

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The vast majority of House Democrats still oppose the bill, but it’s possible that at least several moderates will defy their leaders to support it.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., reiterated to reporters hours before the vote that Democrats were frustrated the bill did not do anything about COVID-19 pandemic-era healthcare subsidies under Obamacare, also known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Those enhanced tax credits are set to expire this year.

“House Democrats are here on the Capitol steps to reiterate our strong opposition to this spending bill, because it fails to address the Republican healthcare crisis and it fails to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credit,” Jeffries said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., sounded optimistic in comments to reporters on Wednesday morning ahead of the vote.

“I wanted to come out and say that we believe the long national nightmare will be over tonight,” Johnson said. “It was completely and utterly foolish and pointless in the end.”

Meanwhile, the shutdown’s effects on the country have grown more severe by the day.

Many of the thousands of air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents who had to work without pay were forced to take second jobs, causing nationwide flight delays and cancellations amid staffing shortages at the country’s busiest airports. Millions of Americans who rely on federal benefits were also left in limbo as funding for critical government programs ran close to drying out.

At the heart of the issue was Democratic leaders’ refusal to back any funding bill that did not also extend the enhanced Obamacare subsidies. Democrats argued it was their best hope of preventing healthcare price hikes for Americans across the U.S.

Republicans agreed to hold conversations on reforming what they saw as a broken healthcare system, but they refused to pair any partisan priority with federal funding.

In the end, a compromise led by the Senate — which saw eight Democrats in the upper chamber join colleagues to pass the bill in a 60 to 40 vote — included a side deal guaranteeing the left a vote on extending the enhanced subsidies sometime in December.

Johnson has made no such promise in the House, however.

And the lack of a guarantee on extending those subsidies has angered progressives and Democratic leaders.

“What were Republicans willing to give in the end, other more than a handshake deal to take a future vote on extending the healthcare subsidies?” Rep. Shomari Figures, D-Ala., said on Wednesday. “We all know that a future vote is the equivalent of asking two wolves and a chicken to vote on what’s for dinner. It is dead on arrival.”

The full House will now vote on the legislation during the 7 p.m. hour.

The bill kicks the current federal funding fight to Jan. 30, by which point House GOP leaders said they were confident they’ll finish work on a longer-term deal for fiscal year (FY) 2026.

“There are nine remaining bills, and we’d like to get all of those done in the next few weeks. And so, [House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla.] and his appropriators will be working overtime,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told Fox News Digital.

Cole said when asked if they would be done by that date, “I think we can.”