House vote likely Wednesday on ending US government shutdown

WASHINGTON,

The effort to end the longest-ever US government shutdown is heading toward a final vote on Wednesday, as President Donald Trump declared victory in the political standoff and rival Democrats struggled over the deal.

The House of Representatives is likely to vote on a spending bill to resolve the six-week impasse, following eight Democrats breaking ranks in the Senate on Monday to side with Trump’s Republicans.

During a Veterans Day speech at Arlington National Cemetery, Trump paused to praise Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune. “Congratulations to you and to John and to everybody on a very big victory,” Trump said, spotting Johnson in the audience. “We’re opening up our country-it should have never been closed,” he added, bucking presidential tradition by using a ceremonial event to make political points.

Trump later said he expected the Republican-controlled House to approve the bill to fund the government through January. “Only people that hate our country want to see it not open,” he told ESPN.

Top Democrats have vowed to oppose the government-funding bill, largely because it does not directly extend health insurance subsidies set to expire at the end of this year. Nevertheless, the bill is likely to pass the House, needing only a simple majority, which Republicans narrowly hold.

From the start, Trump had applied pressure by allowing the shutdown to be as punitive as possible, refusing to negotiate on Democrats’ health insurance demands. Over a million federal workers went unpaid, food benefits for low-income Americans were threatened, and air travellers faced thousands of cancellations and delays ahead of Thanksgiving.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned that the chaos could worsen by the weekend if the shutdown continued, with air traffic controllers unpaid and flight operations slowed. “You’re going to have airlines that make serious calculations about whether they continue to fly, full stop,” he told reporters at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.

Polls have indicated growing voter frustration with Trump’s party as the shutdown passed its 40th day. Yet it was Democrats who ultimately provided the additional Senate votes Republicans needed, without securing key concessions.

“Health care of people all across this country is on the brink of becoming unaffordable,” top House Democrat Hakeem Jeffries told reporters on Tuesday, pledging to continue the fight for lower costs. The deal has divided Democrats, with senior figures arguing they should have held out for an extension of the health insurance subsidies at the centre of the shutdown dispute.

“Pathetic,” California Governor Gavin Newsom, a potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, posted on X. Despite opposing the bill and voting against it, Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has faced criticism from within his party for failing to keep senators unified.

The Democratic struggle was particularly notable following recent election wins in New York City, New Jersey, and Virginia, which highlighted affordability concerns—an area of weakness for Trump and Republicans ahead of the 2026 midterms.

Senate Republicans have promised Democrats a vote on health insurance, with millions of Americans at risk of seeing “Obamacare” costs double if subsidies are not extended. The issue has also caused tensions within Trump’s “Make America Great Again” coalition, with the president on Monday claiming one-time ally Marjorie Taylor Greene had “lost her way” after she criticised the doubling of premiums for her grown-up children.