Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer leaves a caucus meeting as he tries to bring an end to the shutdown at the Capitol in Washington, November 9, 2025. ERIC LEE/AFP
The standoff lasted 40 days, and it was the Democrats who yielded first – or rather, a small group of them. Seven Democrats and one independent sided with the Republicans on Sunday, November 9. They voted in favor of a budget bill, opening the way to end, in the coming days, the longest shutdown in US history. The blockage of most federal government operations, due to a lack of funding, began on October 1.
Republican senators, who hold 53 seats compared to the Democrats' 47, needed at least eight additional votes to reach the necessary "supermajority" of 60 votes, as one Republican had broken ranks. To vote for the bill, Democrats demanded the continuation of subsidies for Obamacare – the health insurance program for low-income Americans – which were set to expire at the end of 2025 and whose extension had been refused by President Donald Trump. Millions of low-income Americans would see their health insurance premiums rise sharply if these subsidies, totaling several hundred billion dollars over the coming years, were not renewed.
