The record 40-day shutdown of the US government has come to an end.
The Senate agreed to break the impasse in budget talks.
Following weekend negotiations in Washington, a group of Democratic senators voted in favor of the agreement along with Republicans.
The vote was the first step to fund the government, which has been without a budget since October 1.
The agreement must also be passed in the House of Representatives before federal employees and services can return.
The Senate is expected to meet for new talks today.
The federal government “shutdown” means mandatory unpaid leave for non-essential public employees and the suspension of many government programs.
The current situation is the longest shutdown on record in the United States.
Many public services in the United States have been suspended and 1.4 million federal employees have been furloughed or working without pay.
The impact of the closure is seen in many areas, from plane travel to food aid distributed to 41 million low-income people.
How was the agreement reached?
Until the weekend, there was no sign that Republican and Democratic senators would reach an agreement.
Republicans, who have a 53-47 majority in the Senate, needed at least 60 votes to pass the agreement.
Eight senators from the Democratic Party voted to accept the agreement.
Only one Republican senator rejected the deal, saying it would increase the national debt.
The agreement foresees a vote in December to extend health benefits, which are expected to end this year.
Democrats have been insisting on this issue for a long time.
“I’m grateful to be able to say that we have both Democratic and Republican senators who are willing to work to resolve the crisis in a nonpartisan way,” Thude, the Senate majority leader, said before the vote.
However, this cooperation attracted the reaction of some segments of the Democratic Party.
“Democrats have been fighting for months for the Senate to address the health crisis. This bill does not provide any assurance that the crisis will be addressed,” said Chuck Schumer, the leader of the Democrats in the Senate.
Some senior figures from the Democratic Party also harshly criticized party members who cooperated with the Republicans.
California Governor Gavin Newsom described the decision as “pathetic.”
The bill provides for funding of government agencies until January 30.
This means another shutdown could occur early next year.
The bill also provides for the payment of wages of federal employees during the closure period.
It is seen as a high possibility that the bill will face various difficulties in the voting in the House of Representatives.
What happened in previous closures?
Budget-induced government shutdowns are a peculiar part of US politics.
It has happened quite frequently in the last 50 years, and there were three shutdowns during Trump’s first term.
The longest shutdown to date started in December 2018 and lasted 35 days.
The reason was a dispute over funding to build a wall on the Mexican border.
The closure ended with a mass absence of air traffic controllers, who had been working without salary for a month. Similar situations occurred during the last lockdown.
At the time, flight cancellations spread rapidly, hastening the government’s reopening.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) calculated that the 2018-2019 shutdown reduced economic output by approximately $11 billion, of which $3 billion was not recovered.
But the closures predate Trump.
Republican Ronald Reagan experienced eight shutdowns during his presidency in the 1980s. But all of this was short-lived.
Democrat Bill Clinton faced 21-day shutdowns in 1995, and Democrat Barack Obama faced 16-day shutdowns in 2013.
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