The longest ever shutdown of the U.S. government is over.
President Trump tonight signed the continuing resolution that provides funding until Feb. 15.
The bill was signed in private tonight, without reporters present.
Both the Senate and the House approved a measure to temporarily reopen the federal government. The plan — which President Trump announced earlier today — will fund the government through Feb. 15.
What happens now: The measure is heading to Trump’s desk for his signature. Once it is signed, it will put an end to the longest government shutdown in US history.
President Trump tonight is trying to push back on the way today’s agreement to reopen the government is being portrayed.
He tweeted moments ago:
The House of Representatives just passed a continuing resolution to fund the government until Feb. 15.
The measure was passed by the Senate earlier today. Now, it heads to President Trump’s desk for his signature.
Over the past few days, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been in “constant contact” with Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer as he had discussions with Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell on a path forward, according to a senior Democratic aide. The two regularly consulted as those discussions proceeded.
Throughout this shutdown, Pelosi made clear that the first step would be to reopen government and only then conduct negotiation. This aide says it was “a position the President finally embraced today.”
This aide pointed to the 11 votes to reopen government since the Democrats took control on Jan. 3 as a key part of the strategy by Pelosi. To do so many appropriations votes — starting with the individual Senate Republican bills — ultimately led to “unsustainable pressure on Senate Republicans.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell spoke with President Trump twice on Thursday — and Trump made the decision late Thursday that he wanted the shutdown to end, per a person familiar with their conversations
The first call came after a contentious Senate GOP lunch where Republican senators vented frustration at Vice President Mike Pence about the lack of strategy to get out of the shutdown. McConnell told Trump that it was unclear how much longer he could get GOP senators to hold the line — especially if there were another round of votes to end the shutdown.
A few hours later, Trump called McConnell back with a new perspective: Trump made clear he wanted the shutdown to end, which led to the deal that was approved by Congress Friday.
What’s unclear, according to the source, is what exactly got Trump to change his mind in the intervening hours between their two phone calls.
The House will vote at 6:30 p.m. ET on the continuing resolution to end the government shutdown, a Democratic aide tells CNN.
They’ll also be voting on a Department of Homeland Security bill. Both are expected to pass with unanimous consent.
After that, the resolution to fund the government will head to President Trump’s desk for his signature.
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell flashed a quick smile at reporters as he walked off the floor to his office moments ago after the Senate passed a bill to reopen the government.
When asked if anything good came out of this episode, Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell said:
Another reporter asked what finally ended the impasse — and specifically asked if it was the airport chaos we started to see materialize today.
“You’d have to ask the President. This was his proposal that we took up and passed.”
The US Senate just passed the three-week continuing resolution to fund the government through Feb. 15. The vote was by voice vote.
The House still needs to pass the measure before President Trump can sign it.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday that just because the federal government is expected to fully reopen soon does not necessarily mean that President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address will take place next week.
Here’s what she said when asked if the State of the Union will go on as originally scheduled for Tuesday night:
On Wednesday, Trump agreed not to give a State of the Union address until after the government shutdown standoff had ended.
Read more on Pelosi’s response here.
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy said he’d still like the State of the Union address to happen either this Tuesday or next Tuesday — but he acknowledged it’s the Speaker of the House’s decision.
What this is about: On Wednesday, Trump agreed not to give a State of the Union address until after the government shutdown standoff had ended. That came about a week after Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi asked him to move the date of the speech until the government was reopened.
A senior administration official tells CNN:
Speaking alongside Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters that she is “optimistic” following President Donald Trump’s announcement earlier Friday afternoon.
Here’s how she put it:
Several GOP senators, interviewed after Trump announced a plan to reopen parts of the government, said they were not thrilled about the way this episode over the shutdown played out.
Sen. Rob Portman said there’s now a structure to cut a deal over immigration, calling the move an “olive branch” from Trump. “I don’t like shutdowns at all. I don’t think they are ever worth it. But I’m glad we are where are,” he said.
Asked if the President could have handled this better, Portman told CNN: “I’m not a big fan of shutdowns — I don’t think they’re good for anybody or provide leverage.”
Sen. Susan Collins, asked if Trump handled this well said this:
Sen. Lindsey Graham said he believes the shutdown forced progress that would not have happened otherwise. He said there is “room to criticize” everyone involved — from Pelosi to the President to Graham himself — but what ultimately brought the deal to fruition was some Democrats breaking from Pelosi.
When asked to react to the news, he said “It depends how it ends. Let me tell you what did happen today: we got a focus now on the need for border security better than we had if we hadn’t had a shutdown. I think he’s won on the argument that we need barriers as part of border security plan. I think the shutdown is a vehicle to get it; it didn’t work.“
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said President Trump has agreed to Democrats’ requests “to open the government and then debate border security.”
He said the move is “great news for 800,000 federal workers and millions of American who depend on government services.”
He said he expects both the House and the Senate to pass the plan.
Schumer
Here’s how Schumer described the plan:
Schumer said he expects both the House and the Senate to pass the plan.
Watch more:
President Trump just announced a deal to reopen the government for three weeks.
Now, Congress needs to pass the measure. According a Democratic aide, the plan right now is for the House to pass the clean continuing resolution by unanimous consent after the Senate acts. That means the House wouldn’t need to bring lawmakers back in to vote, which would take at least 24 hours).
Republicans have signed on, so unanimous consent should happen. A GOP aide said they don’t expect any Republicans to object to that.
Leaving the Senate floor, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he thinks there can be a “good outcome on a bipartisan basis.”
He added: “The President has put forth a plan that both sides are willing to accept and hopefully we will have good faith negotiations over the next three weeks to try to resolve our differences on the best way to secure our border.”
President Trump said he is ready to shut down the government again or “use the powers afforded” to him if lawmakers and the White House are unable to come up with a plan to fun his border wall.
Under the newly announce plan, the government will reopen for three weeks, until Feb. 15.
President Trump said lawmakers have reached a deal to fund the government through Feb. 15.
Sources told CNN the White House and congressional negotiators made an agreement to temporarily reopen the federal government while talks continue on a border wall.
Trump said today that a bipartisan panel will work on a border security package.
Watch:
President Trump said the deal the deal he’s announcing will fund the government for three weeks, until Feb. 15, and a bipartisan panel will work on a border security package.
Trump said he has a “very powerful alternative” — an apparent reference to his threats to declare a national emergency in order to fund the border wall — but said he was “not going to use it.”
Trump thanked Americans and said he’s working to ensure that the furloughed workers who missed two paychecks during the shutdown will get backpay.
“All Americans, I thank you,” Trump said. “You are very, very special people … When I say ‘make America great again,’ it could never be done without you.”
Hear the latest:
President Trump, speaking from the Rose Garden at the White House just now, said lawmakers have reached a deal.
“As everyone knows, I have a very powerful alternative but I’m not going to use it at this time,” Trump added.
Watch more:
