After more than 40 days, the longest government shutdown in history may soon end.
Seven Democrats and one Independent joined Republicans to advance a deal that would fund the government through the end of January.
The deal funds Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits for a year, pays furloughed federal workers and reinstates federal workers the Trump administration tried to fire during the shutdown. It also includes a promise to vote on Affordable Care Act subsidies later this year. But it stops short at addressing that issue, which provoked the shutdown in the first place.
鈥淭here was no guarantee that waiting would get us a better result, but there was a guarantee that waiting would impose suffering on more everyday people,鈥� said Tim Kaine, Democratic Senator from Virginia, who voted for the deal.
Many of Kaine鈥檚 Democratic colleagues disagree. Sen. Elizabeth Warren .鈥�
鈥淚 will not support a deal that does nothing to make health care more affordable,鈥� Warren said in 鈥淭he fight to lower costs is a righteous fight, and we must not give it up.鈥�
Sen. Kaine, for his part, believes that Republicans will honor their promise to bring a Democratic health care proposal to a floor vote.
鈥淚鈥檓 confident there will be a vote,鈥� said Kaine. 鈥淢y gut tells me, based on the conversations I鈥檝e had with Republicans, that many of them really want to fix this, and they know if they don鈥檛, the midterm elections will make last week鈥檚 2025 elections look like a good night for them.鈥�
5 questions with Sen. Tim Kaine
Why did you vote against the wishes of your party leaders?
鈥淚 was with my party leaders for about 40 days. But when the dust settled on the Virginia elections last week, which were really occupying my attention, I stepped back and said, 鈥極kay, where are we right now?鈥�
鈥淭he Republicans had offered no path to fixing the ACA tax credits and said they wouldn鈥檛 even entertain it until the government was open. And SNAP beneficiaries 鈥� 45 million in the United States, 800,000 in Virginia 鈥� were starting to lose benefits. So I engaged with the group at that time who was trying to find a deal.
鈥淲e got a deal that does three things. Number one, it fully funds SNAP benefits in a robust way for a year, along with some other important priorities, like the [Department of Veterans Affairs], reversing some of the damage that the Republicans did to SNAP in the reconciliation bill last summer. It gives us a path to a fix of the ACA tax credits. Not a guarantee, but we didn鈥檛 have a path. And now we do have a path, and we鈥檒l have a debate and vote on the floor of the Senate within a month.
鈥淭hen my piece of the negotiation was to get the federal worker protections, which is not only returning the furloughed employees and the recently fired employees and them getting back pay, but I also got the White House 鈥� and this was the last element that fell into place 鈥� I got them to agree to no mass layoffs, no [reductions in force] going forward. And that really takes a lot of anxiety away from the 2 million people who work for the federal government, about 300,000 of whom are in Virginia.鈥�
Why don鈥檛 you think Democrats should keep holding out for a better deal, even though Democrats just won big in national elections?
鈥淎s of last week, people were blaming the president more than they were blaming anybody else, and rightfully so. He was the one who refused to engage.
鈥淏ut I鈥檝e been doing this for a while, and I realize these polls can change when SNAP beneficiaries, 45 million strong 鈥� about twice as many people as are getting the ACA health insurance 鈥� when they start losing benefits. Then folks start blaming everybody.
鈥淲hen the air traffic control system is so chaotic that you can鈥檛 visit your family for Thanksgiving or your planes and trips are canceled, or, God forbid, some kind of an air accident happens, people start to blame everybody.
鈥淚 became convinced that the Republican red line, 鈥榳e won鈥檛 talk about health insurance until the government reopens,鈥� was not fake. One of the things you do in negotiation, you just don鈥檛 bang your head endlessly against the red line. You try to find big gains in places that aren鈥檛 behind red lines. And that鈥檚 what we were able to do.
鈥淲e鈥檝e got a fighting chance of winning this health care vote. Dems have got the high ground on it now. People know we鈥檙e fighting for them. We鈥檙e going to continue to do it. And Republicans are going to have to make a tough choice about whether they鈥檒l listen to their constituents and solve that health care affordability problem more or ignore them.鈥�
Are you confident that Republicans negotiated in good faith and that there will be a health care vote?
鈥淚鈥檓 confident that there will be the vote. It鈥檚 not one with a guaranteed outcome. My gut tells me, based on the conversations I鈥檝e had with Republicans, that many of them really want to fix this. And they know if they don鈥檛, the midterm elections will make last week鈥檚 2025 elections look like a good night for them.鈥�
Are you confident President Trump will sign this bill if it goes through?
鈥淵es, I鈥檓 confident of that. Again, the White House is very aware that the reconciliation bill they did last summer is jacking up people鈥檚 health care costs, and they鈥檙e getting blamed for that. So they have a motive to fix it. If we fight really, really hard for people鈥檚 health care, I think we鈥檝e got a great chance.鈥�
When could the government reopen?
鈥淢y sense is the Senate will finish this up later today or tomorrow, and then the House hopefully will come back ASAP and get this bill to the president鈥檚 desk.鈥�
____
produced and edited this interview for broadcast with . Perkins Mastromarino also produced it for the web.
This article was originally published on
Copyright 2025 WBUR