President Donald Trump has signed legislation a couple of hours ago to end the government shutdown that spanned 43 days, punting the next funding deadline into late January.
“Today we’re sending a clear message that we will never give in to extortion,” Trump said late Wednesday, alluding to Democrats’ demand that GOP leaders agree to negotiate policy to head off the expiration at year’s end of health care subsidies for millions of Americans.
With the signing, the longest government shutdown in modern U.S. history came to a close, ending a 43-day-long impasse.
The shutdown impacted 42 million federal food aid recipients, 670,000 furloughed federal employees and 4,000 government workers who faced layoffs. It also threatened more than $7 billion in economic damage.
The President also made his pitch again for nixing the Senate filibuster, despite the resistance of most Republican senators. “If we had the filibuster terminated, this would never happen again,” Trump said of the historic funding lapse. “And don’t forget, we have another date coming up in the not-too-distant future.”
Under the bill Trump signed Wednesday night, funding for most federal agencies will run out at midnight on Jan. 30. The House passed the funding measure earlier in the evening, after eight Senate Democrats broke with their party to advance the package Monday night.
