US government shutdown ends with deal that reverses federal layoffs
The US federal government has reopened after lawmakers passed a deal to fund the government and reverse the Trump administration’s redundancies during the shutdown.
The US Senate has passed a vote to fund the government, ending the shutdown which started on 1 October after funding allocations expired. The same deal was then approved by the House of Representatives, ending the longest shutdown in US history.
The new deal provides government funding until 30 January and backdates pay for federal workers, who haven’t been paid since the shutdown began and provide funding for food benefits.
The deal also reverses the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce the federal government headcount. A number of departments and agencies have implemented ‘reduction-in-force’ plans, with the administration providing guidance that agencies should reduce the workforce due to the shutdown.
It is estimated that about 4,200 federal employees across government received redundancy notices in the shutdown period, but these will now be reversed, and the Trump administration will be temporarily barred from conducting further reductions-in-force until the funding deal expires at the end of January.
Read more: Trump administration lays off thousands of federal employees amid government shutdown
What’s not in the deal
President Trump’s Republican party are the biggest party in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, but required votes from Democrats to get the spending bill passed the Senate’s 60-vote threshold to avoid its filibustering rules.
However, Democrats did not provide these votes due to a dispute over health care funding. Government subsidies for health insurance are set to expire, and the party had wanted Republicans to commit to continuing these. However, this is not part of the deal – instead, the agreement means there will now be a vote on healthcare funding in the Senate in the future.
Read more: US federal government departments reopen deferred resignation programmes
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