President Donald Trump signed a bill on Wednesday to end the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.
The 43-day standoff had crippled Washington, leaving hundreds of thousands of federal workers unpaid as Republicans and Democrats traded blame.
The Republican-led House of Representatives voted largely along party lines to approve the Senate-passed package reopening federal departments and agencies, even as many Democrats accused their leaders of capitulating to Republican demands.
Signing the bill in the Oval Office, Trump lashed out at Democrats and urged Americans to remember the episode during next year’s high-stakes midterm elections.
“Today, we are sending a clear message that we will never give in to extortion,” Trump declared, surrounded by Republican lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Earlier, Johnson had delivered a scathing floor speech accusing Democrats of deliberately prolonging the shutdown.
“They knew it would cause pain, and they did it anyway,” he said. “The whole exercise was pointless. It was wrong and it was cruel.”
Approximately 670,000 civil servants are expected to return to work, while another 670,000 who worked without pay — including more than 60,000 air traffic controllers and airport security staff — will receive back pay.
The deal also reinstates federal workers dismissed during the shutdown, with air travel disruptions expected to ease in the coming days.
Trump claimed Democrats had cost the nation $1.5 trillion, though economists dispute that figure. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the shutdown cost about $14 billion in economic output.
