With the Senate having been unable to reach the necessary 60 votes on the Republican and Democrat Funding Bills, the Government went into shutdown from October 1 to November 12.
According to the Associated Press, a small group of Democrats ratified a deal with the Republicans in the House and passed legislation on November 11 to bring the shutdown to a close.
The bill extends funding up until January 30.
“It provides funding for SNAP food aid, as well as the Department of Agriculture, Congress, and Veterans Affairs until September next year,” the BBC said.
“It guarantees that all federal workers will receive back-pay, and reverses the shutdown-related layoffs of thousands of federal workers,” the BBC said.
The bill lacks the extension of healthcare subsidies that Democrats most wanted. The shutdown was sparked primarily due to the debate over healthcare for Americans.
“Instead of including the extension in the continuing resolution bill itself, senators made a deal to hold another vote on the tax credits at the end of the second week in December,” BBC said.
The process of passing a budget for a fiscal year begins with the President submitting a budget proposal (which then has to be reviewed and approved by Congress), with the appropriations committee delegating the budget to specific projects and programs.
Slipped into the bill was a provision for senators to be allowed to sue the Justice Department.
“There’s drama around a provision slipped in the bill that would allow senators to sue the Justice Department for $500,000 each, if they were subject to subpoenas or had their phone records accessed as a result of DOJ’s Jan. 6 investigation,” NPR said.
The disconnect began with the negotiations revolving around healthcare.
According to NPR, Democrats raised the issue of healthcare subsidies needed for over 24 million Americans across the country.
“When the latest funding fight came up, Schumer this time showed a united front with House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries,” NPR said. “Arm in arm, they refused to go along with continuing to fund the government, and made the key issue extending health care subsidies, which, if not extended, would mean tens of millions of Americans would see their health care costs increased.”
The Senate is supposed to reconvene during the first two weeks of December to discuss furthering subsidies for Americans.