Trump Signs Temporary Funding Bill, Ending US Government Shutdown

On November 12th local time, US President Trump signed a temporary funding bill for the federal government, passed by both houses of Congress, at the White House. This action ended the historic 43-day federal government shutdown, the longest in US history.

Earlier that day, the US House of Representatives finally passed a temporary federal government funding bill, previously passed by the Senate, with a vote of 222 in favor to 209 against. This bill will provide continuing appropriations to the federal government, funding most government agencies until January 30, 2026.

The operating funds for the US federal government should originally come from annual budget appropriations. Congress typically should pass new annual appropriation bills before the start of the new fiscal year on October 1st. However, due to intense partisan battles between Democrats and Republicans in recent years, agreements often cannot be reached in time, leading Congress to resort to temporary funding bills to temporarily maintain federal government operations.

On the morning of September 19th, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives narrowly passed a temporary funding bill drafted by Republicans, aiming to fund the federal government until late November. However, the bill failed to pass in the Senate later that afternoon. The core dispute in this stalemate was that Democrats criticized the Republican-proposed temporary funding bill for neglecting healthcare priorities and subsequently proposed their own version. The Democratic version included extending the healthcare-related benefit subsidies under the Affordable Care Act set to expire at the end of the year, as well as reversing cuts to Medicaid in newly passed legislation. However, Republicans refused to compromise.

On the evening of September 30th, the temporary funding bill again failed to pass in a Senate vote. At 0:00 local time on October 1st, the US federal government experienced another shutdown, the first in nearly seven years, due to exhausted funds. Before a revised version of the temporary funding bill finally passed in the Senate on November 10th, the Senate had held a total of 14 votes, all of which failed due to partisan disagreements. Meanwhile, the House of Representatives remained in recess from September 19th to November 10th.