Alliance Alert: After 40 days of a federal government shutdown, Congress has reached a tentative bipartisan deal to reopen the government. The Senate advanced the agreement on Sunday night, beginning voting procedures that could lead to the end of the shutdown in the coming days.
What’s in the Deal
The proposed package is a mix of full-year appropriations bills and a short-term funding resolution that includes several key provisions that directly affect New Yorkers and the communities we serve:
- SNAP (food assistance) fully funded through September 2026, ensuring families and individuals can continue to access critical food resources.
- Reversal of federal worker layoffs (RIFs) initiated during the shutdown, restoring job protections and back pay for furloughed workers.
- Funding for Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, and other programs through the full fiscal year.
- A stopgap measure to fund the rest of the government at current levels through January 30, 2026.
However, the bill does not yet include an extension of Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium subsidies, a major point of concern. Without congressional action by the end of the year, millions could face rising health insurance costs. Lawmakers have agreed to hold a separate vote on this issue in December.
What Happens Next
Although this deal represents significant progress, the shutdown is not yet over. The Senate must complete its voting process, and the House of Representatives — currently on recess — is not expected to reconvene for at least 36 more hours. If the House is able to pass the legislation, the bill will move to President Trump’s desk for signature.
Why This Matters
If passed, this legislation would bring much-needed stability back to families, providers, and federal workers who have faced uncertainty for more than a month. Still, the fight to protect essential services like health care, housing, and mental health supports will continue once the government reopens.
The Alliance’s Commitment
The Alliance for Rights and Recovery will continue to:
- Monitor developments in Congress and provide timely updates.
- Advocate for a long-term federal budget that ensures access to health care, housing, food, and recovery supports for all.
- Share opportunities for advocacy so that our community can help push Congress to protect these essential programs.
We thank our members and partners for continuing to raise their voices during this difficult time — and we’ll keep you informed as soon as the next round of votes begins.
In Solidarity,
Harvey and Luke
What’s In the Legislation to End the Federal Government Shutdown
By Lisa Mascaro | The Associated Press | November 10, 2025
WASHINGTON (AP) — A legislative package to end the government shutdown appears on track Monday after a handful of Senate Democrats joined with Republicans to break the impasse in what has become a deepening disruption of federal programs and services, the longest in history.
What’s in and out of the bipartisan deal drew sharp criticism and leaves few senators fully satisfied. The legislation provides funding to reopen the government, including for SNAP food aid and other programs, while also ensuring backpay for furloughed federal workers the Trump administration had left in doubt.
But notably lacking is any clear resolution to expiring health care subsidies that Democrats have been fighting for as millions of Americans stare down rising insurance premiums. That debate was pushed off for a vote next month, weeks before the subsidies are set to expire.
President Donald Trump noted the deal as he arrived at the White House after watching the Washington Commanders’ game on Sunday evening against the Detroit Lions, on the 40th day of the funding lapse. “It looks like we’re getting close to the shutdown ending,” he said.
The Senate could wrap up passage as soon as Monday. The bill cleared a procedural hurdle, 60-40, late Sunday, with eight Democrats joining most Republicans. In a rare dissent, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York voted against because it failed to fully address the health care funds.
It would next go to the House, where lawmakers have been away since September but were being told to prepare to return to Washington this week. Then, it’s to Trump’s desk for his signature.
Here’s a look at the deal as it’s moving through Congress:
Funding to reopen the government, for now
Included is funding to keep much of the federal government running for the next couple of months, to Jan. 30, with a stopgap measure. It largely funds government operations at their current rates.
Yet in a breakthrough for what’s considered a more normal appropriations process, the package also includes several bills to fully fund other government operations including agricultural programs and military construction along with veterans’ affairs for the full fiscal year, through September 2026.
Additionally, the package ensures states would be reimbursed for money they spent to keep the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, and the Women, Infants and Children program, or WIC, running during the shutdown.
Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the chair of the Appropriations Committee, said she was “relieved.”
“This shutdown has gone on far too long,” she said. “And I also think it’s highly significant that we’ll have three yearlong appropriations bills attached. Veterans Day is coming very soon, and it would be wonderful if we get the full-year Veterans Affairs bill signed into law.”
Health care funding still up for debate
The Democrats failed to secure their main demand during the shutdown, which was an extension of the health care subsidies that many of the 24 million people who buy insurance through the Affordable Care Act rely on to help defray costs.
Instead, the package guarantees a vote on the issue in December — which was not enough for most of the Democrats, who rejected the deal and voted against it.
“The American people want us to stand and fight for health care,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.
Federal workers get a reprieve
The package seeks to roll back some of the Trump administration’s shutdown-related hits to the federal workforce. Employees have faced repeated threats of firings and mass layoffs this year.
The stopgap measure reinstates federal workers who had received reductions in force, or layoff, notices and protects against such future actions.
It also would provide back pay for federal workers who were furloughed or working without pay during the shutdown — something that’s traditionally provided but that the Trump administration had threatened was not guaranteed.
Getting the bill to the president’s desk
Political and procedural hurdles remain as Congress, which is controlled by Republicans, slogs through more voting and the shutdown entered its 41st day Monday.
Senators hope to skip past a series of steps that could drag voting out all week if the dissenters put up a prolonged fight.
One Republican, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, voted against advancing the package Sunday, and he is said to have concerns over a hemp industry provision. And three ultra-conservative GOP senators held up voting for more than two hours as they demanded consideration of their ideas. It is unclear if any of them plans to stage further protests.
Democrats, who have fought for the past month in their hopes of preserving the health care subsidies, also could delay final passage, and their next steps are uncertain.
And the package faces fresh scrutiny once it goes to the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana holds a slim GOP majority and would likely need almost all Republicans to support the bill in the face of objections from Democrats who are holding out for the health care funds.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said the party will fight the bill, forcing the Republicans in the House to pass it largely on their own.
“We will not support spending legislation advanced by Senate Republicans that fails to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits” Jeffries said. “Donald Trump and the Republican Party own the toxic mess they have created.”
What’s in the legislation to end the federal government shutdown
Senators advance tentative deal to end the government shutdown
By Frank Thorp V, Sahil Kapur and Brennan Leach | NBC News | November 9, 2025
WASHINGTON — Senators struck an agreement Sunday, projecting confidence that it will be sufficient to end the lengthy U.S. government shutdown, three sources with direct knowledge of the details told NBC News.
The agreement, reached by a group of Democrats who teamed up with Republicans, cleared the first hurdle on a vote of 60-40 to advance in a late-night Senate vote. If it’s approved, it would then need to pass the House and gain President Donald Trump’s signature to become law and reopen the government.
Even if it has enough support to clear those hurdles, the process is expected to take days.
The agreement contains a “minibus” — three full-year appropriations bills that will fund certain departments like Agriculture through the end of the fiscal year next fall — and a continuing resolution to fund the rest of the government at existing spending levels through Jan. 30.
It would also fully fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, once known as food stamps, through next September, a major flashpoint in the shutdown.
The sources said the deal also reverses Trump’s attempted layoffs of federal workers during the shutdown through RIFs, or “reduction in force” notifications.
But in a major concession from Democrats, it does not include an extension of expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies. Allowing the funds to lapse would raise insurance premiums for millions of Americans unless they are extended. Instead, the Democrats settled for a promise that the Senate will vote on a bill to extend the subsidies by the end of the second week of December, with the outcome uncertain, two of the sources said.
Even then, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has said he won’t promise that the House will vote on extending the subsidies.
The deal to end the shutdown was negotiated by Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., and Angus King, I-Maine, and gained approval from Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and the White House, according to the sources.
The eight Democrats who voted to advance the measure were Shaheen, Hassan, King as well as Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., Dick Durbin, D-Ill., John Fetterman, D-Pa., Tim Kaine, D-Va., Jacky Rosen, D-Nev.
“After 40 long days, I’m hopeful that we can finally bring this shutdown to an end,” Thune said on the floor, citing the “truly precarious situation” of federal workers forced to work without pay and delays at airports as air traffic controllers and TSA agents missed paychecks.
It came a few days after Republicans emphatically rejected a proposal by Democrats to reopen the government alongside a one-year extension of the ACA funds.
King, who opposed the shutdown strategy from the start, said Democrats changed course on the ACA “because it wasn’t working” and it was clear Republicans wouldn’t budge.
The agreement follows extensive bicameral negotiations between party leaders and appropriators on the “minibus” package. Conservatives secured their demand to push the short-term bill into 2026, defeating calls by Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, to set a mid-December deadline.
If it passes, it would then head to the House, which has been on recess since September. And it is not clear that the deal has the support of House Democrats.
The agreement drew mixed early reaction from Senate Democrats.
“Because of Republicans, Americans are going to suffer immensely as this health care crisis gets worse,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said before the vote, slamming Republicans for repeatedly refusing Democratic proposals to continue the ACA funds. “Therefore, I must vote no.”
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who voted against the measure, warned fellow Democrats they were making a “mistake.”
“This bill doesn’t do anything to arrest the health care catastrophe, nor does it constrain in any meaningful way President Trump’s illegality,” he said. “I think the voters were pretty clear on Tuesday night what they wanted Congress to do, and more specifically, what they wanted Democrats to do. And I’m really saddened that we didn’t listen to them.”
Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., said he’ll oppose the deal, as it fails to extend the ACA tax credits.
“I have been clear on this from the beginning: I will not turn my back on the 24 million Americans who will see their premiums more than double if we don’t extend these tax credits,” he said.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said he will vote for it. “I have long said that to earn my vote, we need to be on a path toward fixing Republicans’ health care mess and to protect the federal workforce,” said Kaine. “This deal guarantees a vote to extend Affordable Care Act premium tax credits, which Republicans weren’t willing to do. Lawmakers know their constituents expect them to vote for it, and if they don’t, they could very well be replaced at the ballot box by someone who will.”
Shaheen, the author of a permanent ACA funding extension bill, said the current agreement “was the only deal on the table” and represented Democrats’ “best chance to reopen the government and immediately begin negotiations to extend the ACA tax credits.”
Asked whether she would be willing to vote down a government funding bill in January if Congress fails to pass an ACA funding extension by then, Shaheen replied, “That’s certainly an option that everybody will consider.”
Outside the Senate, the Democratic backlash to the bipartisan agreement was swift. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., wrote on X, “Senator Schumer is no longer effective and should be replaced. If you can’t lead the fight to stop healthcare premiums from skyrocketing for Americans, what will you fight for?”
Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J., who was elected governor last week, slammed the Senate agreement in a statement: “Make no mistake, if this deal passes, it will lead to New Jerseyans paying far more for their [health care].”
Senators advance tentative deal to end the government shutdown