The Democrats who backed Republican shutdown deal – and why

Seven Senate Democrats plus one independent voted on Sunday to support a Republican deal to reopen the US government.

The defections broke a weeks-long deadlock during which the Democratic Party resisted pressure to end the longest ever US shutdown.

During that period, the main reason the Democratic senators gave for refusing to back a funding deal was the expiry of healthcare subsidies – which they said would hit millions of households.

So who are the group who sided with the Republicans – and what have they said to justify crossing the floor?

The Virginia senator, known to many as Hillary Clinton’s running mate in the 2016 presidential election, said he backed the Republican deal because it would protect workers and set the US on a path towards “fixing Republicans’ healthcare mess”.

His state is home to about 300,000 federal employees, many of whom are off work without pay because of the shutdown.

He said: “This legislation will protect federal workers from baseless firings, reinstate those who have been wrongfully terminated during the shutdown, and ensure federal workers receive back pay, as required by a law I got passed in 2019.”

The New Hampshire senator was one of the architects of the deal that advanced on Sunday. She praised it as one that restores a cross-party spending process, including funds for food assistance and healthcare for military veterans.

“Weeks of negotiations with Republicans have made clear that they will not address healthcare as part of shutdown talks – and that waiting longer will only prolong the pain Americans are feeling because of the shutdown,” she said.

New Hampshire’s other senator, Hassan told reporters her constituents had been hit hard by the shutdown and were now bracing for an impending spike in healthcare costs.

“My vote today was to do two things: both equally morally important and imperative,” she said.

Hassan spoke of the importance of a functioning government, “so that our kids eat, so that our elderly citizens eat, so that our air traffic controllers can get some sleep and earn money, get paid while they are working, so that our veterans are protected”.

Masto of Nevada had already voted more than a dozen times to reopen the government.

“We have federal workers that were suffering,” she said after Sunday’s vote.

“We have airport controllers. And we were seeing lines to our food banks in northern Nevada. These were lines that I hadn’t seen since the pandemic.”

Like Masto, Fetterman has been voting to open the government since last month.

The centrist Democrat representing Pennsylvania said: “After 40 days as a consistent voice against shutting our government down, I voted YES for the 15th time to REOPEN.

“I’m sorry to our military, SNAP recipients, gov workers, and Capitol Police who haven’t been paid in weeks. It should’ve never come to this. This was a failure.”

Rosen wasn’t previously among Democrats who had been voting with Republicans to reopen the government.

She clashed with Nevada’s Republican Governor Joe Lombardo after he wrote her a letter urging her to help end the shutdown.

Rosen said in a statement: “The concession we’ve been able to extract to get closer to extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits is a vote on a bill drafted and negotiated by Senate Democrats.”

She was referring to the fact that the deal approved on Sunday includes an agreement for a vote in December on extending healthcare subsidies that are due to expire this year – a key issue for Democrats.

The Republican leader of the Senate, John Thune, said last month he had offered Democrats a vote on the subsidies.

Illinois’s Durbin, who serves as the Democratic whip in the Senate, was the only member of the party’s leadership who voted with Republicans for the deal. In doing so, he broke with the Democratic minority leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer.

“This bill is not perfect, but it takes important steps to reduce their shutdown’s hurt,” Durbin explained in a statement. “Now that Democrats secured these wins, it’s time for Leader Thune to keep his promise to schedule a vote on the ACA [Affordable Care Act] tax credits in December.”

Durbin is retiring next year after three decades in office.

King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, helped negotiate the deal to arrange a vote on tax credits for the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, once the government reopens.

He has a track record of working across the aisle and had helped put together this compromise during meetings in recent weeks.

King said in a statement: “The sum is we are closer to the possibility of work on the ACA tax credits for the people of this country than we were yesterday and than we were a week ago, two weeks ago, or a month ago. So this agreement tonight is a win for the American people.”