Trump signs bill to end longest-ever 43-day US govt shutdown as Epstein vote looms

United States president Donald Trump has signed a bill that brings to an end the longest government shutdown in the country's history.

Longest shutdown

On Nov. 12 (U.S. time), Trump signed the bill into law in the Oval Office, bringing an end to the 43-day shutdown.

Trump’s Republicans and opposition Democrats had been locked in a standoff over a bill that would fund the U.S. government.

Democrats had initially refused to fund the government unless the Republicans committed to ensuring healthcare provisions made by the Obama-era Affordable Care Act (ACA) would continue past December 2025.

But on Nov. 10, seven Democratic senators and one Independent (who caucused with the Democrats) rebelled against the Democrats’ leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, voting to end the shutdown.

This was despite them not being able to gain significant concessions from their Republican counterparts, meaning that there would be no guarantee that the ACA’s provisions would continue past this year, threatening to raise healthcare costs for millions.

The bill was then returned to the House of Representatives, where it was passed by a vote of 222 to 209, largely along party lines, although the BBC reported six Democrats crossed party lines to vote to end the shutdown.

Govt workers go without pay

The shutdown had caused tens of thousands of government workers to go without pay, and threatened food assistance programmes for millions.

The shutdown had also begun to impact the U.S.’s transport infrastructure, as tens of thousands of flights were affected by a lack of air traffic controllers.

Trump hailed the end of the shutdown, but took time to condemn Democratic leaders, as he had throughout the shutdown.

He called the shutdown “extortion” and said Democratic demands would have “hurt our healthcare business”.

Epstein files

But the passage of the shutdown bill may have come at a cost for Trump.

For the House to pass the bill that ended the shutdown, it required Speaker of the House Mike Johnson to swear in Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalva, who had been elected seven weeks earlier in a special election, as reported by The Guardian.

Johnson had been reluctant to do so, as Grijalva would be the tie-breaking legislator who would force a vote on releasing the entirety of the Jeffrey Epstein case files.

Epstein was a prominent U.S. socialite and financier who ran a massive paedophile ring said to involve many influential and powerful U.S. figures, not least Trump himself, who has been documented as being close to Epstein.

Trump had said he would champion the full release of the files while running for office, but in recent months his administration has been reluctant to do so, leading many to accuse it of trying to cover up Trump’s association with Epstein.

Top image via White House/Facebook