The longest partial government shutdown in US history has ended. With his signature, President Donald Trump put the interim budget previously passed by Parliament into force, thus ending the so-called shutdown.
In the House of Representatives, where Republicans have the majority, 222 members previously voted for the interim budget and 209 were against it. In the end, there were also some supporters among the opposition Democrats.
Since October 1st, the United States has no longer had a federal budget and government operations are only functioning to a limited extent. Government employees no longer received salaries, food aid for many Americans stopped and thousands of flights were canceled.
That’s why a lot of things stood still in the USA
Trump’s Republicans and the opposition Democrats waged a bitter dispute over the budget for weeks. For it to pass in the US Senate, a few votes were also needed from Democrats who wanted to push through demands for health care for Americans.
It was about tax credits for health insurance contributions for more than 20 million people, which expire at the end of the year. The Democrats wanted to extend these subsidies. The Republicans opposed this, which is why many insured people are now threatened with a doubling of their monthly contributions.
A record shutdown
Given the extremely polarized US politics, a standstill in government business is not entirely unusual because the two parties are often unable to reach an agreement on time. But this was by far the longest shutdown in US history.
On Wednesday it was 43 days. The longest shutdown before that lasted 35 days at the turn of the year 2019 – that was in Trump’s first term as president.
The breakthrough
Over the weekend, some Democratic representatives in the Senate finally gave in and helped the Republicans get the necessary votes. Since then, the media has speculated as to why the Democrats changed course. In return, the Republicans promised that health care costs would be voted on in Congress in December. However, this initiative is considered almost hopeless in the House of Representatives, where the Republicans also have the majority.
Shutdown could repeat itself
If Trump signs the interim budget, the shutdown will end for now. The interim budget is only valid until the end of January. If no regular budget is passed by then, there could be another shutdown from February.
Note: This article has been updated several times.
