A long-awaited vote has happened – Congress has passed a spending plan to end the federal government shutdown. The compromise would fund much of the government through January and provide funding for SNAP and some agencies through the end of September 2026.
The federal government has been closed since October 1.
Missouri U.S. Senators Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt voted in favor of the bill to end the 43-day federal government shutdown – the longest one in U.S. history. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was the sole Republican no vote.
The U.S. House vote was largely along party lines. Missouri’s Republican U.S. House members supported the plan.
Northern Missouri Congressman Sam Graves told Missourinet affiliate KFEQ in St. Joseph he’s glad the shutdown is finally over.
“You know, in a shutdown like this, nobody wins. Republicans don’t win. Democrats don’t win. And it’s extraordinarily frustrating. And who loses is the American public,” said Graves.
Graves, the chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, said once the president signs the bill into law, paychecks will go out within 48 hours.
“The government will get up and running right away,” Graves said. “It will take a little bit longer for flight service to get back to normal. The airlines got to ramp back up again, but I think it’ll be pretty much back to normal by the holiday season by, you know, Thanksgiving.”
The funding package includes backpay for federal employees. The full-year funding measures include money for agriculture, military construction, the VA and the legislative branch.
Kansas City Congressman Emanuel Cleaver told Missourinet he opposed the compromise because Republicans have not assured Democrats that Affordable Care Act tax credits will be extended.
“If the ACA tax credits are not extended by December 31st, we’re going to have people in our community whose insurance is going to jump up well over 100%,” he said. “These skyrocketing premiums are going to wreak havoc all over the state of Missouri, including and most particularly, the small towns where they have hospitals that are just not going to be able to stay open.”
Cleaver and St. Louis Democrat Wesley Bell voted against the plan.
“Why would I watch somebody take money from the 800,000 people I represent in Missouri and I have no assurance that we’ll ever even have a chance to vote on it. I mean, I think it would be stupid for me to vote. And a few people said, ‘Well, we’ll revisit this down the road.’ I think the people thought my IQ was a little higher than just falling for that,” said Cleaver.
Bell said Kaiser and other organizations have said if the Affordable Healthcare Act subsidies aren’t extended, premiums will increase from 75% to 100%.
“I’m a ‘hard no’ vote on this,” Bell told Missourinet. “Now, if Republicans want to sit down, we can lock ourselves in a room and talk about the rising healthcare costs and addressing those, extending those subsidies, I think that we could get something worked out.”
Senate Democrats spent more than a month blocking votes on reopening the government unless Affordable Care Act subsidies were included in the spending bill. But seven Democrats and one Independent broke rank and voted with Republicans on Monday to end the shutdown.
“Here’s the problem. Even if it happens in the Senate, Speaker Johnson in the House has already said that he won’t commit to bringing it to the floor in the House. So, you can have this, this, this, this vote in the Senate. And if it doesn’t see the light of day in the House, what was it for,” he asked.
Bell, a Democrat, does not believe Republicans will keep a promise to hold a vote on renewing Affordable Care Act subsidies.
“My biggest issue is we’re supposed to be here representing working class families, particularly folks in my district, who are struggling with the cost of living, who are struggling with healthcare costs,” he said.
West-central Missouri Republican Congressman Mark Alford told Missourinet the healthcare subsides should go to the people – not insurance companies.
“I agree with President Trump in some regard; we need to look into this more,” said Alford. “Direct payments to people that they can negotiate their own health care services, pay out of pocket with their health savings accounts where they can negotiate their own price for services or products in the healthcare sector.”
The legislation goes next to President Donald Trump, who has signaled his support.
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