The shutdown, which has been disastrous for Democrats, got even worse on Sunday when Senate Democrats walked away from government funding without getting anything in return.
Eight Senate Democrats voted with 42 Republicans Sunday night on a procedural vote to allow a resolution continuing funding for the government (CR).
The proposal passed 60 to 40, without a single vote being cast, and will enable future voting on a clean continuing resolution until January 30, 2026, which is packed with three relatively non-controversial appropriations bills extended during the fiscal year: agriculture, military construction-veterans affairs, and the legislative branch.
The agreement includes back pay for federal employees and guarantees that more than 4,000 federal employees laid off during the shutdown will be rehired, as well as a blanket moratorium on future cuts until January 30. These jobs are a drop in the bucket compared to the 250,000 workers the Trump administration laid off before the shutdown.
Most importantly, the agreement does not guarantee an extension of the increased COVID-era Obamacare premium subsidies, with Democrats only assured of a vote on the bill of their choice.
“As I have told my Democrat friends for weeks, I will schedule a vote on their proposal, and I have committed to holding a vote no later than the second week of December,” Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said on the Senate floor before the vote.
Even if such a bill passes the Senate, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has not committed to bringing it to the House floor.
The result was that the Democrats once again exaggerated the results on their own grounds, but came up empty-handed, having suffered forty days without any facts.
Democrat Sens. Maggie Hassan (NH), Jeanne Shaheen (NH), Dick Durbin (IL), Jacky Rosen (NV), and Tim Kaine (D-VA) supported the procedural vote. They join Sens. Catherine Cortez-Masto (D-NM), Angus King (I-ME), and John Fetterman (D-PA), who previously voted to allow the House-passed CR to move forward.
Republican Senator Rand Paul (KY) abstained, as he did in the previous round of votes.
The result is another victory for Thune, who kept the Senate in session over the weekend to seek a compromise, and promised to keep senators working until a compromise is reached.
Perhaps more significantly, the vote is the latest — and most damaging — blow for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). His own rank-and-file members — the centrists and most liberal — condemned his shutdown tactics Sunday night.
Schumer is increasingly becoming the primary villain for those left within the Democratic Party, and his grip on the position of minority leader is becoming increasingly tenuous.
One sign of how toxic the end of the shutdown would be for Democrats is that none of the Democrat senators voting Sunday to begin the process of reopening the government are up for re-election in 2026.
Cortez-Masto, Fetterman and Hassan do not have to run again until 2028, Kaine, Rosen and King do not have to run again until 2030. Shaheen and Durbin are retiring.
Senator Jon Ossoff (D-GA), the most endangered Democrat incumbent, did not vote.
The vote was held open for more than an hour to allow Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), who was in Texas during the brutal three-way primary battle, to reach Washington.
The Senate would have to gain unanimous agreement on timing agreements for quick passage, but a vote on final passage is likely to take place by mid-week. After this the amended bill will have to be passed by the House.
Bradley Jay is the deputy political editor of Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter and Instagram @BradleyAJaye.
