US House passes measure to fund government, ends government shutdown

The US House of Representatives passed a short-term measure on Monday to fund the federal government through February 8 and end a three-day government shutdown.

Lawmakers arrive to the House chamber to vote on the continuing resolution to fund the federal government, Capitol Hill, January 22, 2018 in Washington, DC. The U.S. Senate has voted to end the shutdown, and Congress will now need to wait for the House of Representatives to approve the legislation.
AFP

Lawmakers arrive to the House chamber to vote on the continuing resolution to fund the federal government, Capitol Hill, January 22, 2018 in Washington, DC. The U.S. Senate has voted to end the shutdown, and Congress will now need to wait for the House of Representatives to approve the legislation.

The US Congress sped toward reopening the government late Monday as Democrats reluctantly voted to temporarily pay for resumed operations. 

They relented in return for Republican assurances that the Senate will soon take up the plight of young immigrant "dreamers" and other contentious issues.

The vote set the stage for hundreds of thousands of federal workers to return on Tuesday, cutting short what could have become a messy and costly impasse. 

The House approved the measure shortly thereafter, sending the spending bill to President Donald Trump for his signature.

But by relenting, the Democrats prompted a backlash from immigration activists and liberal base supporters who wanted them to fight longer and harder for legislation to protect from deportation the 700,000 or so younger immigrants who were brought to the country as children and now are here illegally.

Democrats climbed onboard after two days of negotiations that ended with new assurances from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that the Senate would consider immigration proposals in the coming weeks. 

But there were deep divides in the Democratic caucus over strategy, as red-state lawmakers fighting for their survival broke with progressives looking to satisfy liberals' and immigrants' demands.

Under the agreement, Democrats provided enough votes to pass the stopgap spending measure keeping the government open until February 8. 

In return, McConnell agreed to resume negotiations over the future of the dreamers, border security, military spending and other budget debates. If those talks don't yield a deal in the next three weeks, the Republican promised to allow the Senate to debate an immigration proposal — even if it's one crafted by a bipartisan group and does not have the backing of the leadership and the White House, lawmakers said. McConnell had previously said he would bring a deal to a vote only if President Donald Trump supported it.

Sixty votes were needed to end the Democrats' filibuster, and the party's senators provided 33 of the 81 the measure got. 

Eighteen senators, including members of both parties, were opposed. Hours later the Senate passed the final bill by the same 81-18 vote, sending it to the House, which quickly voted its approval and sent the measure on to President Donald Trump.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders predicted that operations would return to normal by Tuesday morning.

The plan is far from what many activists and Democrats hoped when they decided to use the budget deadline as leverage. 

It doesn't tie the immigration vote to another piece of legislation, a tactic often used to build momentum. It also doesn't address support for an immigration plan in the House, where opposition to extending the protections for the dreamers is far stronger.

The short-term spending measure means both sides may wind up in a shutdown stalemate again in three weeks.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer lent his backing to the agreement during a speech on the chamber's floor. "Now there is a real pathway to get a bill on the floor and through the Senate," he said of legislation to halt any deportation efforts aimed at the younger immigrants.

The White House downplayed McConnell's commitment, and said Democrats caved under pressure. "They blinked," principal deputy press secretary Raj Shah told CNN. In a statement, Trump said he's open to immigration deal only if it is "good for our country."

Immigration activists and other groups harshly criticized the deal reached by the Democratic leadership.

Cristina Jimenez, executive director of United We Dream, said the members of the group are "outraged." She added that senators who voted Monday in favour of the deal "are not resisting Trump, they are enablers."

Other groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union expressed disappointment and shared similar criticism.

A block of liberal Democrats — some of them 2020 presidential hopefuls — stuck to their opposition. Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Dianne Feinstein of California, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Cory Booker of New Jersey voted no, as did Independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

Feinstein said she wasn't persuaded by McConnell's assurances and did not know how a proposal to protect the more than 700,000 younger immigrants would fare in the House.

Democratic Senator Jon Tester of Montana voted no on the procedural motion to re-open the government — the only no vote among 10 incumbent Democrats facing re-election this year in states won by Trump in 2016. 

Tester said in a statement that the 17-day budget did not include any funding for community health centres that are important to his rural state, nor did the deal include additional resources for border security.

The short-term funding measure includes a six-year reauthorization of the children's health insurance program, which provides coverage for millions of young people in families with modest incomes. It also includes $31 billion in tax cuts, including a delay in implementing a tax on medical devices.

The votes came as most government offices cut back drastically or even closed on Monday, as the major effects of the shutdown were first being felt with the beginning of the workweek.

Republicans have appeared increasingly confident that Democrats would bear the brunt of criticism for the shutdown. 

The White House and GOP leaders said they would not negotiate with Democrats on immigration until the government was reopened, and White House officials boasted that Trump didn't reach out to any Democratic lawmakers during the shutdown.

Although the Democrats initially dug in on a demand for an immigration deal, they had shifted to blaming the shutdown on the incompetence of Republicans and Trump. 

The Democrats seemed sensitive to being seen by voters as willing to tie up government operations to protect immigrants in the US illegally.

In an impassioned closed-door meeting, Schumer told his members that McConnell's pledge was the best deal they were going to get.

On the Senate floor, No. 2 Senate GOP leader John Cornyn of Texas said that for shutting down the government, the Democrats "got nothing." He added that even though McConnell promised to take up the immigration bill by February, "he was going to do that anyway."

While lawmakers feuded, signs of the shutdown were evident at national parks and in some federal agencies. Social Security and most other safety-net programs were unaffected by the lapse in federal spending authority. Critical government functions continued, with uniformed service members, health inspectors and law enforcement officers set to work without pay.

Trump declares victory

President Donald Trump claimed victory on Monday saying, "I am pleased Democrats in Congress have come to their senses," as Senate lawmakers moved to get hundreds of thousands of federal government employees back to work.

With Democratic support, a bill keeping the government funded until February 8 easily passed the Senate, with the shutdown to formally end after approval later Monday by the House of Representatives.

Word of the compromise deal struck in Washington sent US stocks surging to new highs.

But the White House appeared in no mood for bipartisanship or magnanimity after a shutdown that overshadowed Trump's first anniversary in office.

Trump moved to undercut Democrats, saying he would only accept a comprehensive immigration reform -- one that notably addresses his demands for a border wall with Mexico as well as the fate of the "Dreamers."

"We will make a long-term deal on immigration if, and only if, it is good for our country," he said.

Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer earlier announced his party would vote with Republicans to end the shutdown, but in a sign of the poisoned politics of Washington, he pilloried Trump in the process.

"The White House refused to engage in negotiations over the weekend. The great deal-making president sat on the sidelines," Schumer said.

Trump spent the weekend stewing at the White House when he had planned to be among friends and family at his home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida for his anniversary bash.

And with the fundamental row on immigration and funding of Trump's border wall unresolved, Republicans and Democrats may very well find themselves back in a similar stalemate come February 9.

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