US Senate approves bill to end power outages; vote moves to House of Representatives.

🔎 “Shutdown” means a work stoppage. In the US, the term is used to describe when the federal government suspends some of its activities due to a lack of approval by Congress of the annual budget or of temporary funding for public spending.

The current shutdown is the longest in United States history. It occurred due to a lack of agreement between Republicans and Democrats in the Senate, which needs a three-fifths majority vote to pass budget-related matters.

The package will now have to go through the House of Representatives, which is due to vote on the matter on Wednesday (12) — and finally be sent to President Donald Trump for approval, the last step to end the shutdown.

Under the agreement reached in the Senate, Republicans agreed to hold a vote in December to expand the subsidies provided for in the Affordable Care Act — one of the Democrats' top priorities in the funding negotiations.

For now, however, Democrats have given up insisting on the issue as a condition for voting on the bill, which is seen in Washington by analysts and some within the party as a capitulation to the will of the Republican majority .

The resolution also reverses, at least in part, the mass layoffs of federal employees carried out by the Trump administration during the shutdown, and guarantees funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for one year.

The agreement was brokered by two New Hampshire Democrats, Senators Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen, and Angus King, an independent from Maine, according to Reuters. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the House, said he will vote against the measure.

Sunday marked the 40th day of the U.S. government shutdown, which has sidelined federal employees and affected food assistance, parks, and travel, while a shortage of air traffic controllers threatens to disrupt transportation during the busy Thanksgiving holiday later this month.

Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, said the mounting effects of the shutdown are leading the Senate to seek an agreement.

"Temperatures are cooling down, atmospheric pressure is increasing outside, and suddenly it seems like things are going to fall into place," Tillis told reporters.

If the government remains shut down for longer, economic growth could turn negative in the fourth quarter, especially if air traffic doesn't return to normal by Thanksgiving, White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett warned in an interview with CBS. The holiday will be on November 27th of this year.

Discussions on Capitol Hill are taking place as Trump again pushes for replacing Affordable Care Act (ACA) health plan subsidies with direct payments to individuals.

The subsidies — which helped double the number of ACA enrollees to 24 million since 2021 — are at the heart of the shutdown. Republicans say they will only agree to address the issue after the government reopens.

Trump used his Truth Social network on Sunday to criticize the subsidies, calling them "a windfall for health insurance companies and a disaster for the American people," and demanded that the funds be sent directly to people so they can buy coverage on their own.

"I am ready to work with both parties to resolve this issue as soon as the government reopens," he wrote.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Senator Lindsey Graham, a Trump ally, said in television interviews that Trump's healthcare proposal will not be introduced before Congress approves a government funding measure.

“We’re not proposing this to the Senate right now,” Bessent said on ABC’s This Week. “We’re not going to negotiate with the Democrats until they reopen the government.”

Americans seeking Obamacare health plans for 2026 are facing more than a doubling of monthly premiums, according to experts, as subsidies created during the pandemic expire at the end of this year.

Republicans rejected a proposal made Friday by Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer to reopen the government in exchange for a one-year extension of tax credits that reduce the cost of ACA (Obamacare) plans.

Democratic Senator Adam Schiff said on Sunday that he believes Trump's proposal aims to weaken the ACA and allow insurers to deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.

“The same insurance companies he criticizes in those posts — he’s saying, ‘I’m going to give them more power to cancel policies and not cover people with pre-existing conditions,’” Schiff said on ABC’s This Week.