US Government Shutdown Live Updates: US Senate passes resolution to reopen the federal government, sending funding bill to the House

After weeks of negotiations, a group of three former governors New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan and Independent Sen. Angus King of Maine agreed to vote to advance three bipartisan annual spending bills and extend the rest of government funding until late January. Republicans promised to hold a vote to extend the health care subsidies by mid-December, but there was no guarantee of success.

Shaheen said Monday that “this was the option on the table” after Republicans had refused to budge.

“We had reached a point where I think a number of us believed that the shutdown had been very effective in raising the concern about health care," she said, and the promise for a future vote “gives us an opportunity to continue to address that going forward."

- AP

After the Senate passed the spending bill with a 60-40 vote in favour of the resolution, it moves on to the House of Representatives where the GOP leaders are hopeful that it could pass the house by as early as Wednesday.

The bill would then be tabled in the White House for US President Donald Trump's signature which would eventually end the longest running shutdown in the US history.

Schumer, who received blowback from his party in March when he voted to keep the government open, said he could not “in good faith” support it after meeting with his caucus for more than two hours on Sunday. “We will not give up the fight,” Schumer said, adding that Democrats have now “sounded the alarm” on health care.

Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy said “we could have won" and giving up will only embolden Trump. He said voters were on their side after overwhelming wins for Democrats in last week’s elections. “We were building momentum to help save our democracy,” Murphy said.

Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont said that striking a deal was “a horrific mistake.” - AP

The US Senate on Monday approved a compromise that would end the longest government shutdown in US history, breaking a weeks-long stalemate that has disrupted food benefits for millions, left hundreds of thousands of federal workers unpaid and snarled air traffic.

The 60-40 vote passed with the support of nearly all of the chamber's Republicans and eight Democrats, who unsuccessfully sought to tie government funding to health subsidies that are due to expire at the end of the year.

Speaker Mike Johnson urged lawmakers to start returning to Washington “right now" given shutdown-related travel delays, but he said he would issue an official notice for the House's return once the Senate passes the legislation.

“We have to do this as quickly as possible," Johnson said at a news conference. He has kept the House out of session since mid-September, when the House passed a bill to continue government funding.

After weeks of negotiations, the moderate Senate Democrats agreed to reopen the government without a guaranteed extension of health care subsidies, angering many in their caucus who have demanded that Republicans negotiate with them on the Affordable Care Act tax credits that expire Jan. 1.

- AP

Senator Bernie Sanders has criticised President Donald Trump's administration and said that the healthcare system of the United States is "broken".

"The current healthcare system is broken, it is dysfunctional and it is cruel. If you want to have a debate about healthcare, let's have that debate. What we should agree upon is that you don't raise premiums by 100%," said Sanders, BBC reported.

US airlines canceled more than 2,000 flights on Sunday for the first time since the shutdown began, and there were more than 7,000 flight delays, according to FlightAware, a website that tracks air travel disruptions.

Treasury Secretary Sean Duffy said on CNN’s “State of the Union" that air travel ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday will be “reduced to a trickle” if the government doesn't reopen.

Under a deal struck with a group of Democrats, Republicans agreed to a vote in December on extending subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, according to a person familiar with negotiations over the bill. The subsidies have been a Democratic priority during the funding battle, Reuters reported.

The first obstacle to reopen the federal government has been passed in the US Senate after a voting which lasted for nearly two hours. Texas Senator John Cornyn was the last to vote in favour of the spending deal that would last till January. The bill passed the US Senate with 60-40 in favour.

The US Senate has passed the government funding bill, which has opened the route to end the longest federal shutdown in the history of US Congress. The Republicans secured the 60 votes required after eight Democrats voted in favour of the GOP bill to extend the funding until January 2026.

Though the bill still needs to be passed from the House of Representatives and signed by President Donald Trump.

It's been more than an hour since the voting on extending the government funding bill started on the floor of US Senate and now only one vote is required for the deal to pass the Senate. Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas is yet to cast his vote.

Ahead of the key vote in the Senate to pass the government's funding bill and end the federal shutdown, the Senate Democrat leaders met at the Senate floor, however, most of them did not comment on it as they entered the Senate.

Senator Elissa Slotkin told reporters, “I always said, like, it’s got to do something concrete on health care, and it’s hard to see how that happened.”

Senator Bernie Sanders said, "Essentially, if Democrats cave on this issue, what it will say to Donald Trump is that he has a green light to go forward toward authoritarianism, and I think that would be a tragedy for this country," CNN reported.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, has said that he would oppose the government funding bill sponsored by the Republicans and Democratic Senator Brian Schatz, who is expected to become caucus's whip in the next Congress, has also said that he would oppose the bill. Republicans, who have a majority in the US Senate by 53-47, require at least seven Democrat votes for the bill to pass.

The US Senate has started voting to end the 40 days shutdown and extend the government funding until January. However, the vote on Sunday is a procedural measure and the bill would still be required to be passed in the House of Representatives and then signed by President Donald Trump. It has become the longest government shutdown in the US history, CNN reported.