This week: Shutdown could end as Senate spending deal prompts House to return

Niels Lesniewski, CQ-Roll Call on Nov 10, 2025

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WASHINGTON — Senators reached a deal Sunday night that will lead to reopening the government — assuming the House goes along with the plan.

The House, however, will first have to dust off the cobwebs that may have accumulated while not meeting for legislative business in almost two months.

House members were notified Sunday night that they will have 36 hours’ notice for any scheduled votes, which are likely to come a day or two after the Senate passes the measure. Under the deal, the legislation would combine three full-year spending bills for fiscal 2026 with a continuing resolution to fund the rest of the government through Jan. 30.

The Senate voted 60-40 on Sunday to break a filibuster and proceed to the vehicle for the bill Sunday. Supporters got the number of required votes, with none to spare. Eight members of the Democratic Caucus voted with all but one Republican to advance the bill.

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., was among those who voted against it.

“We are going to fight legislatively, fight back home, fight in the courts, and bring this fight in the elections. Health care costs made a major impact on the 2025 election, and they will certainly have an even greater impact on the 2026 election,” Schumer said on the Senate floor.

But the supporters of the agreement in the Democratic Caucus, including Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, suggested that there was no path for getting expiring Affordable Care Act tax credits extended without ending the partial government shutdown.

“The question before us, before those of us here who decided to vote ‘yes’ tonight, the question was, does the shutdown further the goal of achieving some needed support for the extension of the tax credits? Our judgment was that it will not produce that result,” King said. “And the evidence for that is almost seven weeks of fruitless attempts to make that happen. Would it change in a week or another week or after Thanksgiving or Christmas? And there’s no evidence that it would.”

The House dynamics were far from certain, however. House Democrats are expected to broadly oppose the measure.

“If people believe this is a ‘deal,’ I have a bridge to sell you. I’m not going to put 24 million Americans at risk of losing their health care. I’m a no,” Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., who is running for Senate, posted on X. As part of the agreement, Senate Democrats are guaranteed a December vote on extending the expanded tax credits used to pay for insurance premiums, but they are not guaranteed a result.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., also signaled a fight ahead.

“America is far too expensive. We will not support spending legislation advanced by Senate Republicans that fails to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits,” Jeffries said in a statement.

And when exactly the Senate will send the measure to the House may depend on the eagerness of senators to leave town after being in session on both Saturday and Sunday, with Tuesday being Veterans Day.

Array of House business

The return of the House will bring with it the revival of other battles that have essentially been on ice since Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., started the chamber’s extended break to wait for the Senate to act on government funding.

Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz., is still waiting to be sworn in despite having won a Sept. 23 special election to fill the seat.

Johnson has said that she would sworn in once the House returns and the government is funded. Grijalva is also expected to be the key signature on a discharge petition to force floor consideration of a measure to force the Justice Department to release material related to Jeffrey Epstein, the late convicted child sex offender.

“Republicans know that once I’m sworn in, it won’t just chip away at their razor-thin majority — I will become the decisive 218th signature to force a vote on releasing the Epstein files,” Grijalva said in a Sunday night fundraising message sent through Rep. Josh Harder, D-Calif. “This is nothing more than a desperate power play to protect Trump while denying the people of my district a voice in Congress when it’s needed the most.”

Plenty of other business has been sitting to the side, as well.

For instance, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., posted on X that she’s received assurances from Johnson that there will be a committee markup of a bill to ban insider trading. And while some of the end-of-the-year pileup is being addressed through the spending package (including a farm bill extension), there’s plenty still outstanding business, including the annual National Defense Authorization Act.