WASHINGTON — President Trump on Wednesday night signed into law a spending package that will end the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, a legislative victory for Republicans who have not given in to Democratic demands on health care.
“Today we are sending a clear message that we will never give in to extortion,” Trump said during the bill signing ceremony in the Oval Office.
Surrounded by Republican leaders, Trump signed the legislation two hours after it narrowly passed the House by a vote of 222 to 209. The president said it was an “honor” to reopen the government before ending the event without asking questions.
Six Democrats broke ranks and voted to approve the bill, including one Californian, Rep. Adam Gray, who represents the 13th District in the San Joaquin Valley. The 13th District is a swing district represented by Republican John Duarte. Gray beat him last year 187 votes.
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In a statement, Gray said he voted for the legislation because he was concerned Trump was “using vulnerable Americans as political leverage” and the deal included funding for services he believed were critical to his constituents.
“Congress could reject this deal, keep the government closed and watch families go hungry while we make our point,” Gray said. “Instead, I accepted an imperfect compromise that protects the most vulnerable for a full year while we continue to work to preserve health care.”
The president's signature marked the end of a government shutdown that left thousands of federal workers without pay for 43 days, millions of low-income Americans uncertain whether they would receive food assistance and travelers facing delays at airports.
The vote, which began Wednesday night, also capped a frantic day on Capitol Hill as lawmakers publicly released scores of records from Jeffrey Epstein's estate and welcomed a new member of Congress, an Arizona Democrat who played a key role in voting to demand the Justice Department release all of Epstein's files.
The spending package signed by the president will fund the government through Jan. 30 and restore jobs to federal workers who were laid off during the shutdown. It would also guarantee pay back to federal employees who were laid off or worked without pay during the budget impasse.
The package does not include an extension of health care tax breaks under the Affordable Care Act that are set to expire at the end of the year, a key demand that Democrats have been trying to negotiate for more than six weeks while the government was shut down.
“This fight is not over; we are just beginning,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in his closing remarks on the House floor. “We will fight until we win this battle for the American people.”
Jeffries, a New York Democrat, predicted that unless Republicans work with Democrats to address rising health care costs in the coming weeks and months, voters will force them out of office in next year's midterm elections.
“We, as Democrats, believe that health care should be a right, accessible and affordable to Americans in the United States,” Jeffries said.
Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, urged Republicans to vote for the shutdown agreement and told members the shutdown was “meaningless.”
“Let's do this!” Johnson said in his closing remarks.
If the tax breaks expire, the premiums will be more than doubled on average for the more than 20 million Americans who use the health care market, according to independent analysts at research firm KFF.
Another point of contention during the debate was a provision in the funding bill that would allow senators to sue the federal government if their phone records are obtained without their knowledge.
The provision, retroactive to 2022, appears to be aimed at eight Republican senators who discovered last month that their phone records were accessed as part of the Biden-era investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters.
If they successfully sue, each violation would cost at least $500,000, according to the text of the bill.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of the senators whose phone records were available, said Wednesday that he would “definitely” sue when the legal route becomes available.
“You think I'm going to settle this case for a million dollars? No. I want to make it so painful that no one will ever do it again,” Graham told reporters.
Several Democrats criticized the provision in the House. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said it was “unconscionable” to vote for a spending bill with such language.
“How does this even happen? How can we vote to enrich ourselves by stealing from the American people?” she said.
Some House Republicans were caught off guard by the provision and said they disagreed with it. That concern was enough for Johnson to announce that House Republicans plan to fast-track legislation to repeal the provision next week.
Epstein case had big implications for voting
The House began voting on the bill after Johnson swore in Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.) after refusing to do so for seven weeks.
When Grijalva walked onto the House floor and was greeted by the applause of her colleagues cheering her name, she immediately accused Johnson of delaying her swearing-in.
“No person should be able to unilaterally prevent a duly elected member of Congress from being sworn in for political reasons,” Grijalva said, equating the decision to an “abuse of power.”
After finishing her speech, the Democrat immediately signed a petition demanding a House vote demanding the full release of the Justice Department's files on Jeffrey Epstein.
Her signature was the last step required for the vote to take place. The move is sure to renew the pressure campaign to release documents related to Epstein, just hours after House Democrats and Republicans released scores of records from Epstein's estate.
The documents included emails from a deceased convicted sex offender saying Trump “spent hours” with the victim at his home and Trump “knew about the girls.”
“Justice cannot wait another day,” Grijalva said.
In a social media post Wednesday, Trump accused Democrats of trying to use the “Jeffrey Epstein hoax” as a distraction from failed negotiations during the government shutdown.
“There should be no deviation from Epstein or anything else, and any Republicans involved should only be focused on opening up our country and undoing the massive damage the Democrats have done!” Trump wrote.
