Five months ago, the story of the first session of the 119th Congress was expected to be the passage of President Donald Trump’s signature policy legislation known as the One Big Beautiful Bill. But that was before the longest partial government shutdown in American history and the intertwined extended absence of the House.
After the House passed a continuing resolution in September, Speaker Mike Johnson opted to halt legislative business, leading to a funding standoff as the chamber waited for the Senate to sort out how to act on reopening the government.
Senate Democrats, for the most part, refused to support a stopgap spending bill without addressing the pending expiration of enhanced health care tax credits under the Affordable Care Act — and they did not relent on blocking measures put forth by the GOP until after the open enrollment window for insurance plans had started and November elections in New Jersey and Virginia had taken place.
