Senate approves bill to end the shutdown, sending it to the House

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate passed legislation Monday to reopen the government, bringing the longest shutdown in history closer to an end as a small group of Democrats ratified a deal with Republicans despite searing criticism from within their party.

The 41-day shutdown could last a few more days as members of the House, which has been on recess since mid-September, return to Washington to vote on the legislation. President Donald Trump has signaled support for the bill, saying Monday that “we’re going to be opening up our country very quickly.”

The final Senate vote, 60-40, broke a grueling stalemate that lasted more than six weeks as Democrats demanded that Republicans negotiate with them to extend health care tax credits that expire Jan. 1. The Republicans never did, and five moderate Democrats eventually switched their votes as federal food aid was delayed, airport delays worsened and hundreds of thousands of federal workers continued to go unpaid.

House Speaker Mike Johnson urged lawmakers to start returning to Washington “right now" given shutdown-related travel delays, but an official notice issued after the Senate vote said the earliest the House will vote is Wednesday afternoon.

“It appears our long national nightmare is finally coming to an end," said Johnson, who has kept the House out of session since mid-September, when the House passed a bill to continue government funding.

After weeks of negotiations, A group of three former governors — New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan and Independent Sen. Angus King of Maine — agreed to vote to advance three bipartisan annual spending bills and extend the rest of government funding until late January. Republicans promised to hold a vote to extend the health care subsidies by mid-December, but there was no guarantee of success.

Shaheen said Monday that “this was the option on the table” after Republicans had refused to budge.

“We had reached a point where I think a number of us believed that the shutdown had been very effective in raising the concern about health care," she said, and the promise for a future vote “gives us an opportunity to continue to address that going forward."

The legislation includes a reversal of the mass firings of federal workers by the Trump administration since the shutdown began on Oct. 1. It also protects federal workers against further layoffs through January and guarantees they are paid once the shutdown is over.

In addition to Shaheen, King and Hassan, Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, home to tens of thousands of federal workers, also voted Sunday in favor of moving forward on the agreement. Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat, Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman and Nevada Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen also voted yes. All other Democrats, including Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York, voted against it.

The moderates had expected a larger number of Democrats to vote with them as 10 to 12 Democratic senators had been part of the negotiations. But in the end, only five switched their votes — the exact number that Republicans needed. King, Cortez Masto and Fetterman had already been voting to open the government since Oct. 1.

Schumer, who received blowback from his party in March when he voted to keep the government open, said he could not “in good faith” support it after meeting with his caucus for more than two hours on Sunday.

“We will not give up the fight,” Schumer said, adding that Democrats have now “sounded the alarm” on health care.

Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who caucuses with the Democrats, said giving up the fight was a “horrific mistake.” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., agreed, saying that voters who overwhelmingly supported Democrats in last week's elections were urging them to "hold firm.”

House Democrats swiftly criticized the Senate.

Texas Rep. Greg Casar, the chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said a deal that doesn’t reduce health care costs is a “betrayal” of millions of Americans who are counting on Democrats to fight.

Others gave Schumer a nod of support. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries had criticized Schumer in March after his vote to keep the government open. But he praised the Senate Democratic leader on Monday and expressed support for his leadership throughout the shutdown.

“The American people know we are on the right side of this fight,” Jeffries said Monday, pointing to Tuesday's election results.

It’s unclear whether the two parties would be able to find any common ground on the health care subsidies before a promised December vote in the Senate. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has said he will not commit to bringing it up in his chamber.

On Monday, Johnson said House Republicans have always been open to voting to reform what he called the “unaffordable care act” but again did not say if they would vote on the subsidies.

Some Republicans have said they are open to extending the COVID-19-era tax credits as premiums could skyrocket for millions of people, but they also want new limits on who can receive the subsidies. Some argue that the tax dollars for the plans should be routed through individuals.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins said Monday that she's supportive of extending the tax credits with changes, like new income caps. Some Democrats have signaled they could be open to that idea.

“We do need to act by the end of the year, and that is exactly what the majority leader has promised,” Collins said.

Other Republicans, including Trump, have used the debate to renew their yearslong criticism of the law and called for it to be scrapped or overhauled.

In a possible preview, the Senate voted 47-53 along party lines Monday not to extend the subsidies for a year. Majority Republicans allowed the vote as part of a separate deal with Democrats to speed up votes and send the legislation to the House.

Associated Press writers Seung Min Kim, Michelle Price and Stephen Groves contributed to this report.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., speaks to reporters after final Senate passage of the stopgap funding bill to reopen the government through Jan. 30, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday evening, Nov. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., heads to the chamber as the Senate votes to bring the longest government shutdown in U.S. history to an end after a bipartisan compromise, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Nov. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., walks to his private office after speaking to reporters about a stopgap funding bill to reopen the government through Jan. 30, 2026, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Nov. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., makes a statement to reporters following a vote in the Senate to move forward with a stopgap funding bill to reopen the government through Jan. 30, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Nov. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

President Donald Trump meets with Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Friday, Nov. 7, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Speaking to reporters, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., responds to Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer to reopen the government if Republicans extend expiring health care subsidies for one year, at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Nov. 7, 2025, day 38 of the government shutdown. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Michele Singer Reiner, a photographer, movie producer and advocate for LGBTQ+ rights who inspired the happy conclusion to the 1980s romantic comedy “When Harry Met Sally…,” has died.

She and her husband, director Rob Reiner, were found dead Sunday at their home in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. The Reiners’ 32-year-old son, Nick Reiner, was being held Monday in connection with their deaths.

Michele Singer was working as a still photographer and Rob Reiner was directing “When Harry Met Sally...” when they met on the film's set. Within seven months, the couple had married. They had three children: Nick, Jake and Romy.

Rob Reiner told The Guardian in 2018 that meeting his wife influenced his decision to change the ending of the movie so that Harry and Sally got married.

“Originally, Harry and Sally didn’t get together,” he said. “But then I met Michele and I thought: OK, I see how this works.”

As a photographer, Michele Singer Reiner had made the cover image of Donald Trump for his 1987 bestseller “The Art of the Deal.” She went on to work on the 1990 horror film “Misery” as a special photographer.

Later, she was a producer for “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues,” “God & Country,” “Albert Brooks: Defending My Life” and “Shock and Awe,” according to IMDB.

“Michele was an enormously talented photographer whose eye applied not only to what she captured on film but also to her own personal esthetic,” actor, singer and producer Rita Wilson wrote in a social media tribute. “Her work as a producer focused on social justice and creating awareness of our world. She was wry, funny, opinionated but also reasonable and self reflective.”

Wilson, who had roles in “Sleepless in Seattle” and the Rob Reiner-directed “The Story of Us,” said she and husband Tom Hanks have been friends with the Reiners since their children were toddlers. In her post on Instagram, she reminisced about the couple's screening parties in which they paired themed foods and discussions with classic films.

As for her social justice advocacy, Michele Singer Reiner had said she was inspired in part by her mother, a Holocaust survivor.

The Reiners were board members of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, which organized and funded federal court challenges to California’s 2008 same-sex marriage ban, Proposition 8.

A fellow board member, screenwriter and director Dustin Lance Black, later worked with Rob Reiner on the play “8” about the federal trial that got the proposition overturned. With the couple’s deaths, Black said, “The world has lost two of its greatest champions of justice, love, and equality. I have lost two of the most spectacular human beings I will ever know.”

Kelley Robinson, president of the LGBTQ+ political advocacy organization Human Rights Campaign, also reflected on their unwavering allyship.

“So many in our movement remember how Rob and Michele organized their peers, brought strategists and lawyers together and helped power landmark Supreme Court decisions that made marriage equality the law of the land — and they remained committed to the cause until their final days," Robinson said.

Rob Reiner had said his wife was a driving force behind the couple’s activism: “There’s just too much injustice in the world, and she wants to fix it all.”

He told The New York Times in 1989 that the cinematographer on “When Harry Met Sally...,” Barry Sonnenfeld, predicted he would marry her.

She had visited the set with Sonnenfeld’s then-fiancee, during a scene when the characters were having an argument, Rob Reiner said.

“I look over and I see this girl, and whoo! I was attracted immediately,” he said. “I wormed my way into their lunch. But that’s what he said to me: ‘You’re going to marry her.’ And one thing led to another and here we are.”

Rob Reiner, from left, Michele Singer Reiner, Romy Reiner, Nick Reiner, Maria Gilfillan, and Jake Reiner arrive at the premiere of "Spinal Tap II: The End Continues" on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025, at The Egyptian Theatre Hollywood in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

ADDITION ADDS MAIDEN NAME: FILE - Rony Reiner, left, Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner attend the Friars Club Entertainment Icon Award ceremony honoring Billy Crystal at the Ziegfeld Ballroom, Nov. 12, 2018, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)

Christmas decorations hang from a tree on the front yard to Rob Reiner's residence Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman)

CORRECTS IDENTITY OF NICK AND JAKE REINER - FILE - Honoree Rob Reiner, second left, poses with his wife Michele, left, and children Jake, center, Romy, and Nick at the 41st annual Chaplin Award Gala at Avery Fisher Hall, April 28, 2014, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

ADDITION ADDS MAIDEN NAME: FILE - Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner arrive on the red carpet at the State Department for the Kennedy Center Honors gala dinner, Dec. 2, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf, File)