North Carolina’s US senators, Thom Tillis and Ted Budd, voted Sunday evening to approve a bipartisan plan to reopen the federal government, ending a historic shutdown that stretched nearly 40 days.
Eight Democrats joined Republicans to reach the 60 needed votes to end the shutdown in exchange for a future vote on extending enhanced Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, taxpayer-paid subsidies. The agreement funds government operations through Jan. 30 but leaves unresolved disputes over health care spending. The US House will now have to review and approve the deal before it heads to the White House for final signoff from President Donald Trump.
“After 40 long days, I hope we can finally bring this shutdown to an end,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-South Dakota, on the Senate floor Sunday.
Democrats argued the deal failed to address what they called “a Republican-made health care crisis,” while Republicans accused the Senate’s minority party of deliberately prolonging the shutdown.
Budd criticized Democratic leaders for using the shutdown as leverage in state-level elections.
“The darker side of the shutdown is that Democrats held this closed,” Budd told Spectrum News on Sunday before the vote. “We’re hearing that this was kept closed by Chuck Schumer in order to juice turnout in New Jersey and Virginia. I think that’s really bad to play politics with American lives.”
He added, “It’s Democrats that are keeping it closed in order to negotiate, where the people want the government open in order to negotiate. That’s our position — let’s have a negotiation while the government is open and functioning and providing the services to the people that they paid their taxes for.”
While the temporary measure brings relief to furloughed workers and federal programs, it sets up another funding deadline early next year, and more potential brinkmanship in Congress.
“It is impossible to negotiate in good faith when one side holds the entire federal government hostage, and political extortion cannot be the new precedent,” Tillis said in a press release last week. “Senator Schumer has boxed himself in, and Democrats are finally realizing their decisions have real consequences on real Americans.”
