The United States Senate has voted 60-40 to pass a bipartisan funding package that would end the longest government shutdown in American history, sending the bill to the House of Representatives for a vote expected on Wednesday evening.

The Senate approved the package late on Monday night, 9 November, after six weeks of failed attempts. Fourteen earlier procedural votes on the funding bill had gone nowhere before the breakthrough. The shutdown began on 1 October and has now lasted 41 days, leaving hundreds of thousands of federal workers unpaid, delaying food aid for millions of families and disrupting air travel across the country.

Eight Democrats broke ranks to pass the deal

The deal passed only because eight members of the Senate Democratic caucus broke with their party leadership to vote with Republicans. They were Senators Jeanne Shaheen, Dick Durbin, Tim Kaine, Maggie Hassan, Jacky Rosen, Catherine Cortez Masto and John Fetterman, plus independent Senator Angus King of Maine, who caucuses with the Democrats.

The agreement was brokered over the weekend by Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins and White House negotiators, together with the centrist Democrats who ultimately backed it. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer voted against the package.

What the funding package contains

The package uses the House-passed stopgap bill as its vehicle and combines it with three full-year spending bills. It funds most of the federal government through 30 January, giving lawmakers more time to negotiate full-year spending bills for the rest of the fiscal year.

Three areas receive full-year funding through 30 September: the Agriculture Department, including the Food and Drug Administration; the Department of Veterans Affairs and military construction; and the legislative branch. The measure also fully funds the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which serves about 42 million lower-income Americans.

The package reverses layoffs of federal workers made during the shutdown and guarantees retroactive pay for those who were furloughed.

Health care subsidies left out of the deal

The one major issue the deal does not resolve is health care. It does not extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies that are due to expire at the end of December, which had been the central demand of Senate Democrats throughout the shutdown. Majority Leader Thune has promised the Senate will vote by mid-December on extending the premium tax credits, although that vote carries no guaranteed outcome.

What happens next in the House

The Senate vote does not reopen the government by itself. The bill still needs to pass the House, which has not been in session since 19 September. When it reconvenes on Wednesday it will be the House's first time in session in 54 days.

House Speaker Mike Johnson has told lawmakers to return to Washington, giving them 36 hours' notice, and has said he expects the bill to pass quickly. The House Rules Committee advanced the measure overnight, and the full House is expected to hold a final vote on Wednesday evening.

If it passes, as expected, President Donald Trump is likely to sign the bill the same night — he has already endorsed the legislation — and the government will reopen within hours, with furloughed workers returning and back pay following. The end is in sight, but it is not official yet: until the House votes, the longest shutdown in American history is still running.