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Democrats had demanded that any deal to reopen the government include extended health insurance tax credits – an “Obamacare” policy – which are due to expire shortly. “It was our judgment after six weeks, going on seven weeks, of this shutdown, that that path wasn’t working,” King said. The procedural vote that garnered enough support on Sunday night will still need to lead to a substantive vote in the Senate, probably on Monday, Washington time, and then in the House of Representatives, likely to be this week. The House has been in recess since September but can be recalled within about 48 hours. The breakthrough came as the shutdown entered its 40th day, eclipsing the 35-day record set in the first Trump administration over the winter of 2018-19. The reopening bill would fund the government only until the end of January. King said that as part of the deal, Republicans had agreed to put a Democrat-drafted bill on healthcare and the tax credits on the Senate floor by the second week of December. “That was a major step,” he said.
