After the longest shutdown in history, the House passed a bill last night to fund the government through Jan. 30, and President Trump signed it, reopening the federal government, which had been shut since Oct. 1.
The deal to resume government functions came together after eight Democratic senators broke ranks, allowing Republicans to pass a funding bill without extending the enhanced healthcare subsidies Democrats were fighting for. The package also included reinstatement of federal workers who were laid off during the shutdown and a controversial provision allowing some Republican senators to sue over investigations related to Jan. 6, 2021. Six Democrats also voted with Republicans in the House.
Some things will quickly resume with the government back up and running:
- About 800,000 federal employees who had been furloughed or working without pay will start receiving a paycheck again and get back pay.
- The spending package restores full funding for SNAP benefits through next September. Some of the nearly 42 million Americans who rely on the program should receive funds within 24 hours, but the timeframe will vary by state.
But…it could be a while until everything is back to normal
The FAA started cutting flights to ease pressure on temporarily unpaid air traffic controllers last week, causing travel disruptions that peaked on Sunday with nearly 3,000 flight cancellations and 11,000 delays. With the shutdown over, the FAA said the cuts would remain at 6% this week, rather than rising to 10% as planned, and will be lifted once it is safe to do so.
However, National Air Traffic Controllers Association President Nick Daniels said earlier this week that it took over two months for staffing levels to rebound after the last shutdown ended in 2019.
And government data will be weird for a while. There will be delays, and the White House said inflation and jobs data from October, which the government has not been collecting, may never be released. That would leave the Fed without critical information when deciding whether or not to cut interest rates in December.—MM
This report was originally published by Morning Brew.