President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed a bipartisan funding bill to end the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, bringing relief to more than a million federal workers after 43 days of political deadlock that crippled Washington.
The Republican-controlled House voted largely along party lines to approve the Senate-backed measure, reopening key government departments and agencies. The shutdown had forced hundreds of thousands of civil servants to work without pay and left vital services stalled across the country.
In a defiant tone at the Oval Office, Trump blamed Democrats for the standoff, describing their negotiating strategy as “extortion.”
“Today we are sending a clear message that we will never give in to extortion,” Trump said as he signed the bill, flanked by Republican lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Johnson, speaking earlier on the House floor, condemned Democrats’ tactics, saying,
“They knew that it would cause pain, and they did it anyway. The whole exercise was pointless. It was wrong and it was cruel.”
The newly signed funding package provides financing for military construction, veterans’ affairs, agriculture, and Congress through next fall, while the rest of the federal government will be funded until the end of January.
The agreement allows 670,000 furloughed federal workers to return to their jobs, and ensures back pay for another 670,000 who were forced to work without pay — including airport security staff and air traffic controllers whose absence had caused major flight delays.
The deal also reinstates federal workers dismissed during the shutdown, while normal air travel operations are expected to resume in the coming days.
While Trump accused Democrats of inflicting $1.5 trillion in economic damage, economists and the Congressional Budget Office dispute that figure, estimating actual losses at around $14 billion in reduced economic output.
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