Trump signs bill ending longest government shutdown in history which disrupted air travel and food benefits for millions

The signing comes after the government was shut down for almost 43 days and the president urged senators to end the filibuster if the gridlocked negotiations didn’t move forward

President Donald Trump signed a bill late on Wednesday to reopen the federal government, ending the longest shutdown in American history. The signing follows a House vote earlier in the day, largely along party lines, to send the measure to the White House.

“We will never give in to extortion,” Trump said during a signing ceremony in the Oval Office while flanked by his Republican colleagues Wednesday evening. “Because that’s what it was.”

The president accused “extremist” Democrats of pursuing the shutdown “purely for political reasons” and causing “millions of Americans to suffer” impacts such as imperiled food benefits, lost government jobs, and tens of thousands of flight disruptions at major airports.

“People were hurt so badly,” Trump added. “Nobody’s ever seen something like this one.”

All but two House Republicans voted earlier on Wednesday to reopen the federal government through the end of January, while a majority of Democrats voted against the legislation and only six Democrats voted with the GOP. The bill passed the House with 222 votes overall, four votes more than the 218 needed to move the legislation forward.

Donald Trump on Wednesday signed legislation to end the government shutdown, slamming ‘extremist’ Democrats for a shutdown that caused flight delays, stopped pay for federal workers, and threatened the food benefits of millions of Americans (REUTERS)

Throughout the shutdown, the president urged senators to throw out the filibuster, the procedural rule that requires a supermajority of 60 votes to pass most legislation in the upper house.

Trump reiterated that demand Wednesday night as he signed the reopening bill, arguing that eliminating the filibuster guaranteed a shutdown would “never happen again.”

The government was first shut down on October 1 after Democrats in the Senate voted against a stopgap spending bill, known as a continuing resolution, passed by the House of Representatives in September.

With the government shuttered, Democrats continued to push for an extension of Covid-era enhanced tax credits for the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance marketplaces as part of a reopening deal.

But Republicans in the Senate refused and Speaker Mike Johnson kept the House of Representatives out of session.

Thousands of flights were canceled across the country in recent weeks as the government shutdown strained air traffic control staff who were working without pay (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

The Senate passed legislation to reopen the government late Monday evening after eight Democrats joined Republicans in the upper chamber.

The health provisions were not included in today’s legislation, though Republicans have said they will hold a vote in December on reinstating the subsidies.

In the meantime, health insurance companies have already sent out notices that health insurance premiums for customers could double or even triple for the 24 million Americans who purchase their insurance on the exchanges put in place in the 2010 law signed by President Barack Obama. During the Covid-19 pandemic, President Joe Biden increased the tax credits.

Some Democrats are concerned the health subsidies will ultimately get abandoned in further spending negotiations.

“I'm very concerned that even if the Senate came up with a deal that they could agree with that Speaker Johnson won't bring it to the floor, but we have the American people behind us, and we're going to keep staying in the fight,” House Minority Whip Katherine Clark of Massachusetts told The Independent.

The shutdown threatened to massively disrupt crucial food aid programs such as SNAP, while at the same time sending thousands of furloughed federal workers to seek emergency assistance from food banks while they were out of work (Getty)

House Republicans were not entirely happy with Wednesday’s legislation either.

Specifically, they objected to a part of the continuing resolution that would allow for Senators to sue the government for up to $500,000 if the government obtained their phone records without their knowledge.

Mike Johnson said the House would have separate legislation to remove the provision.

“House Republicans are introducing standalone legislation to repeal this provision that was included by the Senate in the government funding bill,” he said on X. “We are putting this legislation on the fast track suspension calendar in the House for next week.”

Throughout the shutdown, House Speaker Mike Johnson declined to swear in the recently elected Representative Adelita Grijalva (L), Democrat of Arizona, a move Democrats suggested was to prevent her from joining a petition to force a vote on the government releasing its remaining Jeffrey Epstein files (AFP via Getty Images)

Many Democrats in the House expressed dismay at the fact they would not be able to include provisions to extend the health care tax credits the way they hoped and felt frustrated that eight Democrats in the Senate crossed over to help Republicans.

“So for all of those that have decided that some Democrats are built for this moment and some aren't, I understand that it is important to recognize that not every Republican is built the same and not every Democrat is built the same,” Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas told The Independent. “And so when you go to the polls, it's going to be important to make sure that you have candidates that can meet this moment.”

As part of the agreement, Republicans in the Senate agreed to hold a vote on the tax credits next month, but a House vote is not guaranteed.

The shutdown came as the Federal Aviation Administration cut services for flights ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday season, the busiest travel time in the year. As lawmakers worked to reopen the government, the FAA announced earlier Wednesday that the flight cuts would stay at six percent pending further review as more airport staff were returning to work.

The bill to reopen the government effectively ends a Trump administration campaign to battle a court order that had mandated it continue to disburse benefits for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, during the shutdown. Americans will resume getting their full benefits within 24 hours, according to the Department of Agriculture.

Beyond just reopening the government, Wednesday’s flurry of activity saw Speaker Johnson swear in Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva of Arizona, who won a special election to replace her father in September, but whom Johnson had delayed swearing in.

“It's frustrating, and it's a battle that we still have to, we have to win for the American people, for southern Arizona,” Grijalva told The Independent.

The frustration came partially because Democrats swept nearly all races during last week’s off-year elections. Rep. Mikie Sherrill, who last week won in a landslide race to become governor of New Jersey, criticized the lack of Democratic leadership.

“I think what my race showed is that people in New Jersey want to fight,” she told The Independent. “They want to see somebody who's got their back. And this did not deliver on health care for people. This did not fix SNAP for people. This did not fix the upcoming utility problems and costs coming.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries expressed confidence that Democrats would win despite the dejection.

“We heard all about this narrative that Democratic voters were somehow discouraged throughout the balance of this year, and we keep winning election after election after election, and Republicans were just decisively defeated last week all across America,” he told The Independent.