Bill to end longest shutdown in history advances to House-wide vote

The House will vote Wednesday on reopening the federal government after lawmakers’ funding bill cleared a major hurdle earlier in the morning.

The bipartisan deal to end the 42-day government shutdown advanced overnight in the House Rules Committee, with all Republicans supporting the measure and all Democrats against.

The plan now heads to the full House for consideration, where several people familiar with GOP leaders’ conversations told Fox News Digital they believe the plan will pass with nearly all Republicans on board.

Passage through the House Rules Committee is a significant step toward ending the shutdown, now the longest in U.S. history, by about a week.

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House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks to reporters outside his office on the 28th day of the government shutdown, at the Capitol in Washington, Oct. 28, 2025. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)

The panel hearing to advance the bill lasted more than six hours, beginning Tuesday evening and ending shortly after 1 a.m. Wednesday.

Democrats tried to force votes on amendments dealing with boosted Obamacare subsidies during the COVID-19 era, which are set to expire at the end of this year, as well as other issues that the Republican Party opposed, but all failed.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., made a notable surprise appearance at one point, testifying in favor of his own amendment to extend those grants for three more years.

The lengthy hearing also saw members of opposing sides clash repeatedly, with Democrats repeatedly accusing Republicans of depriving Americans of their health care and taking a “vacation” for several weeks while remaining in their districts during the shutdown.

“I’m tired of hearing you all say we had eight weeks of vacation,” House Rules Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., said at one point. “I worked every day. I don’t know about you. I don’t want to hear another soul say that.”

Democrats and some Republicans also highlighted a provision in the funding bill that would allow Republican senators to sue the federal government for $500,000 for secretly obtaining their phone records during former special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation.

“I think there’s going to be a lot of people, if they look at this and understand this, they’re going to see this as kind of a selfish, self-serving thing. And I don’t think that’s true,” said Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas.

“I’m trying to figure out what we can do to force the Senate’s hand to say, ‘You’re going to repeal this provision and fix it,’ without amending it here.”

The bill will now go to a House-wide “rules vote,” a procedural test that, if passed, will allow lawmakers to debate the bill itself.

Lawmakers are then expected to hold a final vote Wednesday evening on whether to send the bill to President Donald Trump’s desk for his signature.

The Senate overcame procedural hurdles and advanced its agenda for reopening the government, with responsibility for ending the shutdown now falling to the House. (Tom Brenner/Getty Images)

Trump indicated he supported the legislation in comments to reporters Monday.

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“We’re going to open up our country very quickly,” Trump said when asked if he supported the deal.

The Senate overcame weeks of gridlock Monday night to pass the bill in a 60-40 vote, with eight Democrats joining the Republican Party to reopen the government.

Meanwhile, travel disruptions have wreaked havoc at US airports, with air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers forced to work without pay since last month. Many of those employees were forced to take second jobs to make ends meet, fueling staffing shortages and flight delays that threatened to overshadow the Thanksgiving holiday.

Millions of Americans who rely on federal food aid have also been left in limbo amid a partisan fight over whether and how to fund those programs during the shutdown.

The bill would extend federal funding levels for fiscal year 2025 until Jan. 30 to give negotiators more time to reach a longer-term deal for fiscal year 2026.

It would also allow lawmakers to make progress on this mission, advancing legislation to fund the Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration; the Ministry of Veterans Affairs and Military Construction; and the legislative power.

The United States Capitol building is seen in Washington on December 2, 2024. (Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images)

These are three of 12 individual bills intended to make up Congress’ annual appropriations, packaged into a vehicle called a “minibus.”

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In a victory for Democrats, the deal would also reverse federal layoffs carried out by the Trump administration in October, with workers paid for the time they were furloughed.

A side deal in the Senate also guaranteed Senate Democrats a vote on legislation extending Obamacare subsidies that were boosted during the COVID-19 pandemic, and which are set to expire at the end of this year.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., however, made no such promise on the House floor.