US House set for crunch vote on ending historic funding deadlock

A budget that would end the longest shutdown in U.S. history heads to the House of Representatives for a crucial vote on Wednesday.

On the 42nd day of the crisis, representatives return to Washington to decide whether to approve the Senate package to fund federal agencies for two months.

The Republican leadership expressed confidence that the spending plan would be approved by the House of Representatives in Congress, despite their narrow majority. But top Democrats have vowed to oppose it.

President Donald Trump has indicated he will sign it into law. “We are opening up our country,” he said Tuesday at a Veterans Day event in Arlington, Virginia. “It should never be closed.”

The shutdown, which began on October 1, has deprived 1 million federal workers of wages, halted food stamps for low-income Americans, and delayed air travel for fliers before the Thanksgiving holiday.

With nearly 1,200 flights canceled Tuesday because unpaid air traffic controllers were called in due to a funding halt, lawmakers are looking for other ways to get to Washington.

Congressman Rick Crawford of Arkansas posted on X that he was riding in a car with fellow Republican, Trent Kelly of Mississippi, to the nation’s capital.

Congressman Derek Van Orden said he was riding a Harley Davidson motorcycle from his home state of Wisconsin.

“It’s going to be a bit cold,” he posted on X on the 16-hour flight. “But I will do my duty.”

The House Rules Committee advanced the bill on a party-wide procedural vote of 8-4 in the early hours of Wednesday morning, in a seven-hour session.

Republicans on the committee ignored Democratic amendments seeking to extend expiring health insurance subsidies — their main demand during the impasse.

The council is expected to reconvene at 16:00 EST (21:00 GMT) for an hour-long discussion on the legislation before voting.

House Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York vowed to fight the bill.

“We as House Democrats strongly oppose this reckless Republican effort to continue to push high costs of living onto ordinary Americans,” he told CNN.

Jeffries expressed frustration with Senate Democrats who sided with Republicans Monday night to pass the spending plan.

Democrats’ main demand during the shutdown was for Republicans to attach to the spending bill a provision to extend tax breaks that make health insurance less expensive for 24 million Americans.

But Republicans remained united and refused to budge, only agreeing to allow a vote in December on health care support, something they had offered weeks earlier.

There is no guarantee that the measure will even pass the Senate, while House Speaker Mike Johnson has not yet committed to a vote on the tax breaks in that chamber.

Johnson kept the House out of session for 53 days to increase pressure on Senate Democrats to agree to a compromise on the shutdown.

Before Wednesday’s vote, Trump will swear in Arizona Congresswoman-elect Adelita Grijalva, a Democrat who won a special election in September.

Once she is sworn in, the Republican majority in the House will shrink to five votes – 219 to 214.

This means that Johnson can only afford to lose two Republicans in any party vote.

The budget leaves the federal government on track to continue adding about $1.8 trillion (£1.4 trillion) a year to its $38 trillion debt.

But Chip Roy of Texas said he was “not aware of any significant opposition” to the bill from fiscal hawks in the House Freedom Caucus.

Potential Republican defectors Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Victoria Spartz of Indiana have so far remained tight-lipped about how they plan to vote.

But even if they fall out of line, the House speaker could still pass the bill with the help of moderate Democrats, such as Jared Golden of Maine or Henry Cuellar of Texas.

It does not appear that either party has emerged politically unscathed from this complex legislative situation.

Polls suggest voters believe Republicans bear slightly more blame, while Democrats are closely divided on brinksmanship.

Once the lockdown ends, appropriators have only two months to avoid the next lockdown.

Government funding is scheduled to end on January 30.

Follow the twists and turns of Trump’s second term with weekly North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher American politics is not woven Newsletter. Readers in the UK can Register here. Those outside the UK can Register here.