The bill must be approved by the House of Representatives and signed by US President Donald Trump.
Published November 11, 2025
The United States is nearing the end of a record government shutdown after the Senate took a key step toward ending a five-week impasse.
The Senate on Monday night approved a spending package on a 60-40 vote that will fund the U.S. government through January 30 and restore paychecks to hundreds of thousands of federal workers.
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The spending bill will then go to the House for approval, which will then receive approval from President Donald Trump to finally end the shutdown.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said he would like to pass the bill on Wednesday and send it to President Trump for enactment.
The Senate vote follows negotiations this weekend in which seven Democrats and one independent agreed to vote in favor of the latest spending package to end the government shutdown, which entered its 42nd day on Tuesday.
The agreement also includes three years of funding for the Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration, military construction projects, Veterans Affairs, and Congressional operations.
But the bill does not solve one of the most central problems of the government shutdown: extending health care subsidies. Senate Republicans have agreed to vote on the issue as a separate measure in December.
U.S. Congress is under increasing pressure to end the government shutdown, which enters its 42nd day Tuesday as voters feel the impact of underfunding programs like food stamps.
Hundreds of thousands of federal workers have been furloughed or required to work without pay since the government shutdown began on October 1, and President Trump has also threatened to use the shutdown as an excuse to cut the federal workforce.
Voters are also feeling the effects of airport closures across the country, after the Federal Aviation Administration announced last week that it would cut air traffic by 10% due to lack of air traffic controllers.
The cuts disrupt U.S. air travel just as the country is heading into its busiest travel season of the year.
