WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed legislation Wednesday to reopen the government, ending Democrats' 43-day shutdown.
Net Continuing Resolution (CR) funds government through the end of January and includes three of the twelve fiscal year 2026 appropriations—agriculture, military construction, veterans affairs, and legislative branch—with funding for them through the end of September.
Trump, flanked by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), House Majority Leader Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) and Cabinet officials, criticized Democrats for refusing to open the government before the signing.
“For the last 43 days, Democrats in Congress have shut down the United States government in an attempt to extort hundreds of billions of dollars from American taxpayers for illegal aliens and people who came to our country illegally,” Trump said.
“Today we are sending a clear message that we will never give in to extortion, because that's what it is. They tried to extort – the Democrats tried to extort our country,” he added.
Trump said Democrats “did enormous harm” by keeping the government closed since October 1.
“They caused 20,000 flights to be canceled or delayed; they took off so many times so late. People suffered so much. Nobody had ever seen anything like this. It wasn't difficult, it was a simple extension, but they didn't want to do it the easy way,” he said, adding:
They have deprived over a million government employees of their paychecks and taken away food stamps from millions and millions more needy Americans. They have left tens of thousands of federal contractors and small businesses unpaid, and the total impact of the damage caused by their antics will take weeks, perhaps months, to truly accurately calculate, including the serious damage they have caused to our economy, people and families.
White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt noted earlier Wednesday at a briefing that it was unlikely that the October consumer price index and employment reports would be released due to the shutdown.
“The Democrats may have caused irreparable damage to the federal statistical system, as the October CPI and Employment Index reports will likely never be released, and all of that published economic data will be permanently damaged, leaving our policymakers at the Fed flying blind during a critical period,” she said. said.
