WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump signed legislation on Wednesday to reopen the government, ending a 43-day Democrat shutdown.
The clean continuing resolution (CR) funds the government through the end of January and includes three of twelve appropriations for fiscal year 2026 – agriculture, military construction-veterans affairs, and legislative branch – with funding for those due by the end of September.
Trump, along with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) and Cabinet officials, criticized Democrats for refusing to open the government before the signing.
“For the past 43 days, Democrats in Congress have shut down the United States government in an effort to extort hundreds of billions of dollars from American taxpayers to pay for illegal aliens and people who came to our country illegally,” Trump said.
He said, “Today, we are sending a clear message that we will never bow to extortion, because that is what it is. They tried to extort—the Democrats tried to extort our country.”
Trump said Democrats “caused massive damage” by keeping the government shut down through October 1.
“They canceled or delayed 20,000 flights; they took off so many times that late. People were hurt so badly. No one ever saw anything like this. It was an easy move, it was an easy expansion, but they didn’t want to do it the easy way,” he said:
He stripped more than one million government workers of their paychecks and cut food stamp benefits for millions of Americans in need. He left thousands of federal contractors and small businesses unpaid, and it will take weeks and perhaps months to accurately calculate the total impact of the damage his actions have caused, including the serious harm he has done to our economy and to people and families.
White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt said at a press briefing earlier Wednesday that October’s consumer price index and jobs reports were unlikely to be released because of the shutdown.
He said, “The Democrats have permanently damaged the federal statistical system with the October CPI and jobs reports that will likely never be released, and all economic data released will be permanently skewed, leaving our policymakers at the Fed blindsided over a critical period.”
