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The House will vote on reopening the federal government on Wednesday after lawmakers' funding bill hit a key hurdle earlier in the morning.
A bipartisan agreement to end the 42-day government shutdown cleared the House Rules Committee Wednesday night, with all Republicans supporting the measure and all Democrats opposing it.
It now moves to the full House of Representatives, where several people familiar with conversations among GOP leaders told Fox News Digital they believe it will pass nearly all Republicans.
Passage through the House Rules Committee is a significant step toward ending the shutdown, now the longest in U.S. history, by about a week.
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House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, speaks to reporters outside his office on Day 28 of the government shutdown at the Capitol in Washington, Oct. 28, 2025. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)
The committee hearing on the bill lasted more than six hours, began Tuesday evening and ended shortly after 1 a.m. Wednesday.
Democrats tried to hold votes on amendments addressing expanded Obamacare subsidies during the COVID-19 era, which are set to expire at the end of this year, as well as other issues opposed by the GOP, but they all failed.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., made a notable surprise appearance at one point, arguing in favor of his own amendment to extend those subsidies for another three years.
Party members on opposite sides of the aisle also clashed several times during the lengthy hearings, with Democrats repeatedly accusing Republicans of depriving Americans of health care and taking weeks of “holiday” while remaining in their home districts during the shutdown.
“I'm tired of hearing y'all say we had an eight-week vacation,” House Rules Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., once said. “I worked every day. I don't know about you. I don’t want to hear another soul say that.”
Democrats and some Republicans also included a provision in the funding bill that would allow GOP senators to sue the federal government for $500,000 for secretly obtaining their phone records during an investigation led by former special counsel Jack Smith.
“I think there will be a lot of people, if they look at it and understand it, they will see it as self-serving and self-serving things. And I don't think that's right,” said Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas.
“I'm trying to figure out what we can do to get the Senate to say, 'You're going to repeal this provision and fix it,' without making any amendments to it.”
The bill will now undergo a “true vote” of the full House, a procedural test that, if passed, will allow lawmakers to debate the legislation itself.
Lawmakers are expected to take a final vote sometime Wednesday evening on sending the bill to the president. Donald Trumptable for his signature.
The Senate overcame procedural hurdles to advance a package to reopen the government, with the burden of ending the shutdown now falling on the House of Representatives. (Tom Brenner/Getty Images)
Trump signaled his support for the legislation in comments to reporters on Monday.
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“We will open up our country very quickly,” Trump said when asked if he supported the deal.
On Monday night, the Senate broke weeks of gridlock and passed the legislation by a 60-40 vote, with eight Democrats joining the GOP to reopen the government.
Meanwhile, travel disruptions have caused chaos at US airports, with air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees forced to work without pay since last month. Many of those employees were forced to take second jobs to make ends meet, leading to staffing shortages and flight delays that threatened to overshadow the Thanksgiving holiday.
Millions of Americans who rely on federal food benefits were also left in limbo by partisan infighting over whether and how to fund these programs during the shutdown.
The bill would extend federal funding levels for fiscal year (FY) 2025 until January 30 to give negotiators more time to reach a long-term agreement for fiscal year 2026.
It would also give lawmakers some progress toward that mission by advancing a bill to fund the Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration; Veterans Affairs and Military Construction Administration; and legislative power.
The US Capitol building in Washington, December 2, 2024. (Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images)
These are three of 12 separate bills intended to form annual congressional appropriations, combined into a vehicle called a minibus.
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In a victory for Democrats, the agreement also reverses federal layoffs implemented by the Trump administration in October, with those workers still being paid while they are away.
The side deal struck in the Senate also guaranteed Senate Democrats a vote on legislation to extend Obamacare subsidies that were increased during the COVID-19 pandemic and are set to expire at the end of this year.
Speaker Mike JohnsonHowever, the Louisiana Republican made no such promise to the House of Representatives.
