Record US Government Shutdown Ends as Trump Signs Spending Bill

President Donald Trump signed legislation to end the longest government shutdown in US history, marking the official conclusion to a 43-day impasse that halted food aid to millions of households, canceled thousands of flights and forced federal workers to go unpaid for more than a month.

Trump’s signature means the government can begin to resume normal operations, with federal workers expected back on the job starting Thursday.

US President Donald Trump signs funding legislation to reopen the US government, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Nov. 12.

Photographer: Bonnie Cash/UPI/Bloomberg

However it could still take days, or even weeks, for the federal bureaucracy to fully restart and dig out of the backlog after being closed since Oct. 1. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told reporters earlier Wednesday he anticipated it could takeas long as a week to start lifting flight restrictions at major airports.

The shutdown fight has weighed on the US economy. The Congressional Budget Office last month projected a six-week government closure would lower real gross domestic product growth in the current quarter by 1.5 percentage points. A bit more than half of the loss may be recouped early next year as federal programs resume and government employees receive back pay, the CBO forecast.

In the end, that pain was enough to force a reopening.

The House voted 222 to 209 earlier Wednesday evening to pass interim funding through Jan. 30. Democrats largely opposed the bill because it doesn’t include their central demand in the shutdown fight: the renewal of subsidies for Affordable Care Act health insurance policies set to expire at the end of the year.

Lingering Pain

Delta Air Lines Inc. chief executive Ed Bastian told Bloomberg Television Wednesday that shutdown-related flight cancellations will hurt the air carrier’s quarterly earnings. The airline expects to return to normal operations in time for the busy Thanksgiving holiday.

Many of the 42 million low-income Americans covered by the federal food stamp program also have been denied their November benefits, amid a legal battle between the Trump administration and states over whether food assistance can continue during a shutdown.

Volunteers distribute food items to furloughed federal workers at a food bank distribution site in Hyattsville, Maryland.

Photographer: Pete Kiehart/Bloomberg

Food aid won’t immediately snap back — states say they need as long as a week to update their beneficiary files and load debit cards. And with only two major card vendors, there could be bottlenecks as every state looks to replenish benefits all at once.

Read more: Shutdown’s End Kicks Off Long Process of Rebooting US Government

Most federal workers have not been paid in more than a month — regardless of whether they have been working — though the White House found legally controversial ways to pay military troops during the shutdown. A senior administration official said government workers would start to receive backpay on Saturday

Financial markets’ visibility into the state of the economy also has been clouded because the government stopped publishing key economic data during the shutdown. The jobs and the consumer price index reports for October are unlikely to be released due to the government shutdown, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday.

Read more: US Economic Data Releases Delayed by Government Shutdown

The Bureau of Labor Statistics is expected to publish a calendar in the coming days with updated release dates for delayed economic data.

Democrats’ Failure

Trump claimed the shutdown’s ending as a victory in comments to reporters earlier this week. Still, the hardships from prior shutdowns have typically been quickly forgotten and may not be a factor in the 2026 midterm congressional elections.

The shutdown is ending in the same way past clashes have since shutdowns became common in the late 1970s: the party seeking to leverage a shutdown for policy wins has backed down in the face of public pressure.

US House Speaker Mike Johnson at the US Capitol on Nov. 12.

Photographer: Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg

“It was completely and utterly foolish and pointless in the end, as we said all along,” Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters before the funding package passed.

Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Wednesday night that he and Republicans sent “a clear message that we will never give in to extortion.”

Senate Democrats deployed procedural obstacles to block a Republican temporary funding package to keep the government open, leveraging Senate rules that require 60 votes to overcome determined opposition.

Ultimately, seven Senate Democrats and one Democratic-aligned independent broke with the rest of the party to back a new stopgap spending bill in exchange for a Senate vote on extending Obamacare subsidies by the middle of December.

Yet there is no guarantee the subsidy extension will pass. Even if it does, Johnson has pointedly refused to promise any House vote on the matter at all.

And there’s no certainty Trump would sign it into law. The president has repeatedly said in recent days — and reiterated again Wednesday — that he’d prefer the government change how it’s funding health care rather than renew the subsidies.

“I’m always willing to work with anyone, including the other party,” Trump said. “We’ll work on something having to do with health care. We can do a lot better, we can do great.”

That raises the prospect that the policy fight will turn into a political issue for the 2026 midterm elections.

Representative Hakeem Jeffries outside the US Capitol in Washington on Nov. 12.

Photographer: Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg

“House Democrats are here to continue to engage in this struggle to decisively address the Republican health care crisis,” Jeffries told reporters before leading his caucus to oppose reopening the government.

Next Funding Deadline

The interim spending package funds most of the government through Jan. 30, raising the prospect of another shutdown fight at that time.

Food stamp benefits wouldn’t be at risk next time because the stopgap funds that program through Sept. 30. The Agriculture Department, Veterans Affairs department, Food and Drug Administration, military construction projects and Congress itself are also funded through Sept. 30.

The funding bill also bans federal layoffs through Jan. 30, a demand of Senator Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat who represents many government employees in the Washington suburbs and joined with other centrists to support the stopgap.

Progressive groups have been infuriated by the centrist Democrats’ abandonment of the party’s health care demands in the shutdown fight. Groups like MoveOn are also calling for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to step down, although there is no sign that members of his caucus are joining in that effort.

Schumer opposed the deal to reopen the government and wanted to fight on, his allies say.

(Updates to reflect reopening guidance in second paragraph, adds Trump comments on health subsidies starting in 20th paragraph.)

--With assistance from Skylar Woodhouse, Maeve Sheehey, Jack Fitzpatrick, Laura Davison, Justin Sink and Jordan Fabian.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Erik Wasson in Washington at ewasson@bloomberg.net;
Alicia Diaz in Washington at adiaz243@bloomberg.net;
Jarrell Dillard in Washington at jdillard11@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Megan Scully at mscully32@bloomberg.net

Mike Dorning, Derek Wallbank

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