First vote to end the "shutdown" approved.

The U.S. Senate is debating this morning (Monday local time) the end of the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. The first vote, which allows the agreement negotiated in recent days to be discussed by the upper house of Congress, passed by the narrowest of margins: 60 votes were needed to pass and it obtained that same number, including the entire Republican caucus, seven Democrats and the independent Angus King, reports CBS News .

The first step does not mean that the agreement has been approved, but only that it can be debated and voted on later: the final vote that will definitively end the " shutdown " is expected to take place in this session. For a law to be debated in the Senate, 60 of the 100 senators must vote in favor of its discussion. It was at this stage that the shutdown began on October 1st, after the Democratic Party refused to approve the discussion of the budget plan proposed by the Republican Party —which holds the majority in the House.

With the discussion approved, the debate continues focusing on the project agreed upon between Republicans and eight Democrats: Catherine Cortez Masto, John Fetterman, Dick Durbin, Maggie Hassan, Tim Kaine, Jackie Rosen, Jeanne Shaheen, and Angus King (despite being elected as an independent, King votes with the Democrats). The project can be approved with a simple majority. After that, it will still have to be approved in the House of Representatives , the lower house which the Republican Party also controls.

The Democratic Party refused to discuss the Republican budget until the expansion of health subsidies covered by the Affordable Care Act (the so-called Obamacare), which is scheduled to end in 2026, was extended. The eight Democrats who have now deviated from the Party line broke the shutdown with the promise that this expansion would be debated at a later date and that the Trump administration would not proceed with mass layoffs of federal employees.

The President reacted to Monday's vote with satisfaction, saying, moments before the Senate met, that " we are going to open the country very quickly ." "The agreement is very good," he added in statements from the Oval Office , guaranteeing that he would comply with the measures foreseen in the agreement regarding federal employees.

[There are doubts until the very end, culminating in the shortest victory in history. "The Craziest Election Ever" is the new Observador Podcast Plus about the 1986 Presidential elections. A series narrated by actor Gonçalo Waddington, with an original soundtrack by Samuel Úria. You can listen to the latest episode here , on Observador, and also on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , and YouTube Music . And you can listen to the first episode here , the second here , the third here , the fourth here, and the fifth here.]