The U.S. Senate made a huge step toward reopening the government on Sunday night when several Senate Democrats gave in and joined Republicans in their effort to adopt a new proposal to end the closure.
As the day went on, it became more and more evident that the shutdown, which was now in its 40th day, would be coming to an end. This was especially true when senators revealed a bipartisan bundle of spending bills that they intend to attach to a modified plan to reopen the government.
Eight Democrats in the Senate voted with Republicans to end the shutdown, which was the first stage in the GOP’s plan.
Many of the legislators who broke away from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., were part of conversations between Republicans and Democrats over the past few weeks.
Senators Angus King (I-Maine), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the second most powerful Democrat in the Senate, were among those who left.
“The question was, does the shutdown further the goal of achieving some needed support for the extension of the tax credits? Our judgment was that it will not,” King said. “It would not produce that result. And the evidence for that is almost seven weeks of fruitless attempts to make that happen.”
Schumer and other Senate Democrats have said for a long time that they would not let the shutdown drag on indefinitely, especially once it became clear that holding the line was no longer moving negotiations forward. In the end, they chose progress over stalemate — a decision that finally cracked open a path toward reopening the government.