The House Prepares to Vote On Bill to End the Government Shutdown

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Alex Ossola (0:23)

A houseboat expected tonight would reopen the US government after a record-breaking shutdown. Plus, what a divided Fed means for next month's decision on interest rate cuts.

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It's unusual that you see this kind of fracturing of the Fed, and it has to do with three big mysteries the economy faces right now.

Alex Ossola (0:42)

And it's the end of an era for the US penny. It's Wednesday, November 12th. I'm Alex Ossola for The Wall Street Journal. This is the PM Edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today. The House is assembling for an expected vote this evening on a bill that ends the government shutdown. The package extends funding for much of the federal government through January and includes funding for the full year for the Agriculture Department, Military Construction, and the Legislative Branch. For more on what's in the bill, Anvee Bhutani joins me now from Washington. Anvee, what else is in this spending bill?

Anvee Bhutani (1:20)

Yeah, there's a couple of interesting nuggets hidden in this spending bill. One of them is that there's language that would guarantee the reversal of federal layoffs by the Trump administration during the shutdown. And it also means that there will be no more mass firings until the end of January. And the bill will make sure that everyone that missed their paychecks was furloughed, will get their back pay. This was a hot point of controversy throughout the shutdown. So this is a win for federal workers. There's other specific language around providing more security for lawmakers. So after the shooting of Charlie Kirk, Congress decided that they should put in hundreds of millions more in security for House and Senate members, Supreme Court justices and other executive branch officials. There are also potential $500,000 payouts that might go out to several Republican senators. There were eight Republican senators who had their phone records investigated during a Justice Department probe a couple of years ago while the Justice Department was investigating President Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election. And this language means that they might get $500,000 in damages. But both Democrats and Republicans have criticized this and don't think it's appropriate.

Alex Ossola (2:39)

And House Speaker Mike Johnson said today that Republicans would introduce a bill next week to repeal that provision. Now, I want to talk about the health care subsidies that were such a point of contention between Democrats and Republicans throughout the shutdown. Did Democrats get the health care subsidies they've been fighting for?

Anvee Bhutani (2:55)

The Democrats did not get any kind of language on health care subsidies in this current spending bill. They have made a deal with the Senate Majority Leader John Thune to get a vote on a proposal for extending health care subsidies by mid-December. But the vote is contingent upon the Democrats getting some Republicans to agree with them, which we're not sure if they will do. And additionally, there's no pledge on the House side, so the House of Representatives won't necessarily be voting on any kind of extension of health care subsidies.

Alex Ossola (3:30)

That was WSJ Reporter Anvee Bhutani. Thanks Anvee.

Anvee Bhutani (3:33)

Thank you so much.

Alex Ossola (3:35)

For now, at least, the government is still shut down. And that means flights continue to be disrupted. Abigail Roman, a 31-year-old venture capital investor from Denver, told us she canceled a trip this week because she was worried about delays. After a trip on Sunday that had her sitting on the tarmac at LaGuardia for two hours.

SPEAKER_6 (3:53)

I was supposed to go to a longevity conference in West Palm Beach. And my boss was like, you don't really want to go to that, I feel like. And I don't want you to get stuck in Florida.

Alex Ossola (4:04)

When the government does reopen, flights won't immediately go back to normal. Alison Poley covers travel and tourism for the Journal and is here to tell us why. Alison, why this delay in getting back to normal here?

SPEAKER_7 (4:16)

Well, it's not like the airlines can snap their fingers and all of a sudden just put pilots and flight crews in the right place. They've been displaced. The FAA put an order out that said a certain percentage of all air traffic needed to be cut at 40 major airports. So when the government does reopen, we'll be in a situation where they will need to phase the flight traffic back in.