Government shutdown ends after a record 43 days
The bill ending the shutdown is the result of a deal that seven Senate Democrats and one independent made with Republicans.
The Senate passed the bill Monday, the House passed it Wednesday, and President Trump signed it Wednesday night.
Among other things, the compromise includes a Republican promise to hold a vote by mid-December to extend the health care subsidies that had been the Democrats’ core demand.
Here are more details on the bill, from The Associated Press.
And here are the eight senators’ explanations of their compromise, also from AP.
There’s been intense criticism of the deal, such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., calling it a “terrible mistake”; Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., saying it was indefensible; and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., calling it a “policy and political disaster.”
There have been calls for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to step down after failing to stop the eight senators from voting to reopen the government.
But, as Axios notes, the criticisms of Schumer don’t matter as long as Senate Democrats continue to stick with him. And “not a single Democratic senator has said publicly that Schumer should step aside.”
Despite the intense blowback, the result in the end might not be “all that bad” for Democrats in next year’s midterm elections, says NPR.
“If Republicans do vote against health care subsidy extensions in December — when a promised vote is to take place as part of this shutdown deal — then the GOP will fully own the increased health care costs that come with it,” says NPR.
Epstein
When the House returned to session Wednesday, Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz., was sworn in, more than seven weeks after she won a special Arizona election to fill the House seat last held by her late father.
Grijalva immediately signed a discharge petition to trigger a vote to release files related to Jeffrey Epstein, giving it the necessary 218 signatures.
Also Wednesday, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released three emails in which Epstein mentioned Trump.
Republicans on the committee responded by releasing 23,000 documents related to Epstein and accused the Democrats of cherry-picking a few emails out of context in an effort to make Trump look bad, says AP.
Here is the text of the first three emails, from PBS.
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