LEILA FADEL, HOST:
After 40 days of a government shutdown, the longest in U.S. history, there was movement in Congress to end it. Late last night, seven Senate Democrats and one independent broke with party leadership and voted with Senate Republicans to pass a bill that would eventually fund the government through January. The House would still need to come back into session and pass new legislation in order to end this shutdown. And many Democrats there are opposed to the deal. In a few minutes, we'll hear from Representative Ritchie Torres of New York about why he calls it a surrender. But we start with NPR's Luke Garrett, who was on Capitol Hill and at the White House yesterday and joins me now. Good morning.
LUKE GARRETT, BYLINE: Good morning.
FADEL: What's in the deal, and how did it come together?
GARRETT: So, in short, moderate Democrats broke rank and made a deal with Senate Majority Leader John Thune and the White House. Senators Jeanne Shaheen, Angus King and Maggie Hassan led the negotiations for the last few weeks, according to a source familiar but not authorized to share these details publicly. And the agreement is set to do three things. First, fund the government until January 30. The second part of the deal is passage of an appropriations package that reverses all government shutdown firings and supports food stamp funding through next September. The deal also assures a vote on the Affordable Care Act by the second week of December, but that's not part of the actual legislative text. And it's this last point that has many Democrats opposed to the deal and, frankly, frustrated.
FADEL: Yeah. I mean, that was their main demand. What have we heard from them, and what are they saying?
GARRETT: So Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, for one, is really disappointed and does not support this among - with many other Senate Democrats. They oppose it, because, as you said, this deal doesn't include direct language on the health care tax credit. It's the very reason Democrats voted to shut down the government for weeks now. Many House Democrats are also weighing in. Representative Greg Casar of Texas posted on X, this deal is a, quote, "betrayal" and a, quote, "capitulation" because it doesn't directly and immediately reduce these health care costs.
FADEL: So how are these dealmaking Democrats that voted with the Republicans responding to this?
GARRETT: So late last night, these Democrats really held a press conference explaining themselves. Senator Shaheen of New Hampshire said they got the best possible deal out of the GOP.
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JEANNE SHAHEEN: Republicans control the White House, the Senate and the House. And they made clear over a period of weeks, including just this week, that this was as far as they would go as part of the shutdown talks.
GARRETT: When asked why now, after blocking government funding for 40 days, Maine Senator Angus King said waiting just wasn't working. Bottom line, these Democrats said they believe the shutdown was hurting the country too much, and they got real concessions you know, from Republicans. But they're betting big that enough Republicans will cross the aisle in December to pass an extension on health care tax credits. That's definitely not a certainty.
FADEL: Yeah. OK, given this deal, how close is a reopening of the government? And that would mean food benefits flowing again, air traffic controllers getting paid.
GARRETT: So after arriving back at the White House last night, Trump said he was hopeful the shutdown would end soon. Here he is after stepping off Marine One.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: It looks like we're getting close to the shutdown ending. You'll know very soon.
GARRETT: But the reality is there's still several procedural steps to get through, you know, this process, even in the Senate. And the House hasn't approved it yet, either. The lower chamber is set to vote on reopening the government later this week, but we haven't heard one word from Speaker Mike Johnson, who earlier this week said, you know, he made no promises about a health care vote. So we're at least a few days away from flights restarting as normal and food benefits getting back on track.
FADEL: That's NPR's Luke Garrett. Thank you, Luke.
GARRETT: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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