NEW YORK: The longest government shutdown has ended with President Donald Trump signing the legislation passed by Congress to temporarily fund federal operations.
The standoff between the Republicans and the Democrats that paralysed the government for 42 days broke on Wednesday when the House of Representatives voted to approve the legislation passed by the Senate to end the stalemate.
"It's a great day", Trump said after signing the bill, which the Republicans consider a triumph as they got it through Congress without giving in to the Democrats' demands.
The stalemate was broken when eight Democrats crossed the floor to vote with the Republicans to move the bill to a vote on Monday.
The range of federal operations, from air travel to programmes for subsidised or free food for the needy, can now resume, although it may take some time for all of them to be fully functional.
All federal employees will get their back pay, including those who could not work during the shutdown.
Under the legislation, most government operations will be funded till the end of the year, by when a budget will have to be hammered out.
The House votes were mostly along partisan lines, 222 to 209, with six Democrats voting with the Republican majority, and two Republicans voting against it.
Trump has threatened to take an axe to Obamacare and proposed giving the subsidies directly to people eligible for it and letting them use it to choose their own insurance. He said the subsidies go to the insurance companies, enriching them and sending their stocks soaring.
Hidden in the bill is an extraneous provision making it illegal for federal prosecutors to search senators' phone records without notice, and provides for compensation of as much as $500,000 for violations.
It is retroactive to 2022 and was prompted by prosecutors searching senators' phone records during the investigations into the January 2021 protests by Trump's supporters who broke into the Capitol while Congress was ratifying former President Joe Biden's election. (IANS)
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