The labor federation’s decision comes as the Senate on Wednesday approved handing President Obama fast track authority to finalize a sweeping Pacific Rim trade pact, a deal the unions vigorously oppose. But with fast track on its way to the president’s desk and the second fundraising quarter ending next week, the AFL-CIO is re-opening the spigot on donations from its affiliated unions’ political action committees.

The news will come as a relief to vulnerable Democratic incumbents and their allied groups, for whom the absence of financial support over the last several months from such a traditionally critical source was a gut punch. The looming close of fundraising period adds urgency, since candidates hope to discourage challengers by posting intimidating hauls in their mid-year campaign disclosure reports.

The AFL-CIO first announced the freeze in March, explaining in a statement that it was choking off contributions “in order to conserve resources for the historic legislative battle around fast track… and the debate over the Trans-Pacific Partnership.” Labor appeared to be on the verge of victory as recently as two weeks ago, when a revolt by House Democrats derailed progress on the fast track measure. But the White House and its odd-bedfellow allies in Congressional Republican leadership managed to regroup, devising a legislative strategy that salvaged the effort. They sealed their first-round win late Wednesday afternoon, when the Senate voted 60-38 to hand Obama the power to wrap negotiations on the trade pact and then submit it for a simple up-or-down decision in Congress.