Trump plans to sign bill ending shutdown tonight as House preps vote. Live updates

The measure is expected to pass and then go to the desk of President Donald Trump, who has said he will approve it. A small group of Democrats in the Senate announced Sunday night they had negotiated an agreement with Republicans and the White House to resolve the funding crisis.

"The deal is very good," the president said Monday.

If lawmakers manage to sidestep widespread flight disruptions in returning to Washington, they'll take the penultimate step in moving past a political mess that has lasted for more than a month and left millions of Americans unable to afford food, travel and rely on countless government services.

The history-making debacle has bitterly divided Washington, and congressional Democrats in particular. In a concession from the GOP, the latest deal would reverse Trump's recent layoffs of thousands of federal workers amid the shutdown ‒ but it would not extend expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies as Democrats had demanded for weeks.

Instead, the bill only guarantees a stand-alone vote on the health care subsidies in December before the credits expire at the end of the year and send health care premiums skyrocketing. It's unclear if enough Republicans support extending the funds for the effort to pass in the Senate, and Speaker Mike Johnson has not committed to holding a vote in the House.

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Rep. Adelita Grijalva sworn in after long delay

In his first order of business after a nearly two-month-long recess, Speaker Mike Johnson swore in Arizona Democratic congresswoman Adelita Grijalva.

The swearing in took place seven weeks after her special election victory to take her late father's place in Congress in September. The delay drew widespread rebukes from Democrats.

Her addition guarantees there may be enough votes in the House to force a vote on a measure to release more files related to Jeffrey Epstein.

"I will sign the discharge petition right now to release the Epstein files," Grijalva said on the House floor, referencing the push.

What comes next? When will the House vote?

The House convenes at noon for the first time since before the shutdown began Oct. 1 and debate on legislation to end the shutdown is expected to begin about 5 p.m.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-Louisiana, estimated the first of several votes would come shortly after, and voting should be completed by 8 p.m.

The initial debate and vote will be to set the rules governing the debate. The rules call for an hour of debate on the Senate version of the bill. The bill would reopen the government until Jan. 30 and provide back pay to federal workers for the shutdown.

Most Democrats remain opposed to the bill for failing to extend subsidies set to expire Dec. 31 under the Affordable Care Act, which is also known as Obamacare.

Republican congressional leaders agreed to negotiate a potential extension after the shutdown ends. A Senate vote on potential legislation is expected the second week of December.

House will vote on repealing provision that allows senators to sue over phone records

Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday that Republicans will introduce legislation next week to repeal a controversial provision in the shutdown-ending funding package after it takes effect.

The measure allows a group of GOP senators to sue the federal government for hundreds of thousands of dollars over the Biden administration subpoenaing their phone records as part of a yearslong investigation into the Jan. 6 insurrection. When some of the lawmakers recently learned their communications were involved in the probe, they were irate. 

But Republicans in the House, including Tom Cole of Oklahoma, the powerful chair of the appropriations committee, said in recent days they were unaware of the provision before it was attached to the legislation to reopen the government.

Rep. Austin Scott, R-Georgia, denounced the addition during a congressional hearing Tuesday night, saying it set a dangerous precedent. 

"What they did is wrong," Scott said. "There's actually a list of people that know they will get paid as soon as this thing is signed. Or at least they've got the coupon, and all they have to do is go file it at the courthouse and get paid."

White House: Trump plans to sign legislation Wednesday night ending shutdown

President Trump plans to sign a funding package Wednesday night ending the shutdown once it passes the House of Representatives, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

As House readies for shutdown vote, Democrats release Epstein emails

While Congress is buzzing with shutdown activity, Democrats released bombshell emails from the late disgraced financier and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. And more could be coming.

In the emails released by Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Epstein claimed the president "spent hours at my house" with one of his victims and "knew about the girls."

In another email, Epstein said, "of course he knew about the girls," referring to the president. "As he asked ghislaine to stop." Ghislaine Maxwell, an aide to Epstein, is serving a 20-year prison sentence for conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in sex acts.

The White House called the email release a "smear," and Trump, a former friend of Epstein's, has forcefully denied knowing about his alleged sex trafficking.

How much could the shutdown end up costing?

Despite movement in Congress, the federal government remains largely closed for business. While cost estimates from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) are still just that – estimates – the nonpartisan group can offer an early look into how much the impasse may end up costing the country.

Though shutdowns have historically not had major lasting impacts on the economy, risk of adverse effects grows the longer a shutdown drags on. This one is the longest in U.S. history.  

In an Oct. 29 report, the CBO projected the nation’s real GDP could see a 1.5% drop by Nov. 12 as a result of the shutdown. While most of the decline in real GDP will be recovered eventually, the report says, as of today’s six-week mark, it estimates $11 billion may be permanently lost.

Who are the Senate Democrats who voted with the GOP on the deal?

Eight Democratic senators broke from their ranksand joined with Republicans to vote for a deal to reopen the government on Nov. 9. The move infuriated many other Democratic caucus members.

The group consists largely of moderate Democrats, and none of the eight are running for reelection in 2026. The include four former governors and two senators who have announced they're retiring when their term ends, and an independent who caucuses with Democrats.

They are: Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nevada; Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nevada; Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois; Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pennsylvania; Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-New Hampshire; Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, New Hampshire; Tim Kaine, D-Virginia and Angus King, I-Maine.

Flight delays, cancellations persist ahead of House vote

Within the past week, air travel was thrown into disarray after the Federal Aviation Administration began cutting down on flights to manage the effects of more than a month of air traffic control staffing issues exacerbated by the shutdown.

Though lawmakers are working on a deal to reopen the government, it’s not likely these flight disruptions will end immediately.

Experts and airlines have cautioned that travelers should prepare for further flight disruptions throughout the week. As it stands, the FAA is expected to increase flight cuts to 8% on Nov. 13 and to 10% on Nov. 14.

As of Wednesday morning, FlightAware data showed more than 880 cancellations and over 650 delays for flights within, into, or out of the United States. Flight disruptions slightly eased up yesterday, Nov. 11, with 1,264 cancellations after Monday, Nov. 10 saw over 2,400 cancellations.

– Kathryn Palmer, Thao Nguyen, N'dea Yancey-Bragg

What happened to SNAP benefits?

The nation’s leading food aid program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), has been caught in a series of legal challenges and funding disruptions over the last few weeks due to the congressional impasse.

For the first time in the food stamp program’s 60-year history, funding lapsed on Nov. 1, launching a scramble to try to keep benefits going for the 42 million Americans who depend on them.

A few days before the lapse, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it couldn’t use $6 billion of contingency funds to pay for SNAP, although the agency has used it in at least two previous shutdowns. That was challenged in courts, and a series of back-and-forth between the agency and court orders has further confused and frustrated Americans who need the benefits.

The latest move came on Nov. 11, when the Supreme Court declined to order the administration to fully fund the food benefits, giving Congress time to settle the matter.

– Kathryn Palmer & Sarah D. Wire

When did the shutdown begin?

The federal government shutdown began just after midnight on Oct. 1, after Democrats and Republicans came to loggerheads over the extension of expiring health care subsidies for millions of Americans.

It became the longest shutdown in U.S. history on Nov. 5, bypassing the last one in 2019, which occurred during Trump’s first administration. That one lasted 35 days and cost the economy about $3 billion, or 0.02% of GDP, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

House Democratic leaders urge 'no' vote on bill to reopen government

House Democratic leaders urged their colleagues to vote against the Senate legislation to reopen the government because of the lack of additional health care funding that lawmakers warn could leave millions without health insurance.

Most Democrats in the House and Senate have opposed temporary funding measures to keep the government open. Democrats demanded a restoration of spending cuts to Medicaid and an extension of subsidies set to expire Dec. 31 under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

But eight senators who caucus with Democrats joined Republicans in approving the bill in the Senate. The bill cleared a key hurdle overnight when the House Rules Committee agreed to rules on how the bill will be debated Nov. 12.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York, joined others in proposing an amendment to extend Obamacare subsidies for three years, but the proposal failed.

House Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Massachusetts, sent out a message to colleagues  recommending a “no” vote on the bill.

“This does not have to happen to the American people. This is a choice,” Clark told the Rules Committee. “Democrats have been presenting off-ramps all year. We've been giving you a chance to reverse course day after day.”

Poll: Many Americans want Democrats to hold firm on shutdown

A new survey found that 41% of Americans believe Democrats shouldn’t vote to fund the government unless the legislation includes the health care changes they’ve been demanding.

The Economist/YouGov poll of U.S. adults released Nov. 11 comes as eight members of the Democratic Caucus in the Senate voted with Republicans on legislation to reopen the government. The House is expected to vote today on the bill, which doesn’t include an extension of health care subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year.

Democrats for weeks fought to include an extension of the Affordable Care Act premium subsidies in government funding legislation, and many on the left have criticized the compromise funding bill as insufficient without the extension.

The survey also found that 36% of Americans blame Republicans in Congress more for the shutdown, compared to 34% who blame Democrats more and 24% who blame both equally.

Duffy urges House to act and vote to end the government shutdown

During a news conference Tuesday in Chicago, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy urged the House to follow the Senate and vote to end the shutdown.

If the House doesn't act and the government remains shuttered, Duffy warned of dire consequences for the nation's air traffic system. Some airlines, he said, may choose to ground their fleets. 

“If the House doesn’t act, I think we’ll see more than 10% disruption — and possibly airlines grounding planes altogether," Duffy said at a news conference at O'Hare International Airport. "That’s how serious this is.”

“If the House doesn’t pass this bill, I think you’re going to look at Saturday, Sunday and Monday as tiddlywinks," he later added. "It was beautiful. It’s going to get much worse than that.”