After six grueling weeks, the longest government shutdown in U.S. history has finally come to an end. House Speaker Mike Johnson pushed through a last-minute spending package that cleared the House with a narrow margin, bringing relief to hundreds of thousands of federal workers. The bill now heads to President Donald Trump for signing.
But the fight isn’t over. The deal leaves unresolved one of the biggest flashpoints — healthcare subsidies for 24 million Americans. While Johnson hailed the passage as a victory for Republicans, Democrats slammed the bill for ignoring the struggles of working families.
#MikeJohnson #USGovernmentShutdown #GovernmentShutdownEnds #USShutdown2025 #CongressVote #USPolitics #GovernmentFundingBill #ShutdownCrisis #BreakingNews #USCapitol #MikeJohnsonSpeech #TrumpAdministration #DemocratsVsRepublicans #HouseVote #USGovernmentNews #ShutdownDeal #FederalWorkers #WashingtonPolitics #PoliticalShowdown #GovernmentCrisis #MikeJohnsonMove #CongressNews #BidenAdministration #ShutdownRelief #CapitolHill #USLawmakers #GovernmentBudget #MikeJohnsonUpdate #ShutdownOver #AmericanPolitics
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But the fight isn’t over. The deal leaves unresolved one of the biggest flashpoints — healthcare subsidies for 24 million Americans. While Johnson hailed the passage as a victory for Republicans, Democrats slammed the bill for ignoring the struggles of working families.
#MikeJohnson #USGovernmentShutdown #GovernmentShutdownEnds #USShutdown2025 #CongressVote #USPolitics #GovernmentFundingBill #ShutdownCrisis #BreakingNews #USCapitol #MikeJohnsonSpeech #TrumpAdministration #DemocratsVsRepublicans #HouseVote #USGovernmentNews #ShutdownDeal #FederalWorkers #WashingtonPolitics #PoliticalShowdown #GovernmentCrisis #MikeJohnsonMove #CongressNews #BidenAdministration #ShutdownRelief #CapitolHill #USLawmakers #GovernmentBudget #MikeJohnsonUpdate #ShutdownOver #AmericanPolitics
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NewsTranscript
00:00Well, good evening, everybody. We feel very relieved tonight. The Democrat shutdown is
00:11finally over thanks to House and Senate Republicans who stood together to get the job done. Absolutely
00:18no question in anybody's mind now that the Democrats were responsible for this. What
00:22happened? Millions of American families went without food on their table. You had millions
00:27of Americans stranded in airports, their flights canceled and delayed. You had troops and federal
00:33employees wondering where their next paycheck would come from. The Democrats openly admitted,
00:38they openly admitted, many of them said it in their own words, that they used the American
00:42people as leverage in this political game. They knew that it would cause that pain to
00:47the people, and they did it anyway. They did it for their own selfish purposes, their political
00:53purposes, and it was a game they played with real people's lives. It's something that is
00:58very difficult to forgive. I want to say that all this was utterly pointless and foolish.
01:05This outcome was totally foreseeable. I said that this would be the outcome when all this
01:10began back in mid-September. They did it anyway. Democrats admitted that they used the people's
01:15leverage, and they got nothing for their selfish political stunt here. They didn't achieve anything
01:21with this at all. And anyone who studied history would know that shutdowns never yield any positive
01:26result. It just hurts people. I said on the House floor a little while ago that we did
01:31all this in good faith. From the very beginning, I was insistent about this. Our leadership team
01:36was. The Republicans did the right thing. We had a nonpartisan continuing resolution. We
01:42didn't have any Republican priorities on it at all. We just said in good faith, let's keep
01:47the lights on. Let's keep this going for another seven weeks so that the Congress can do its
01:52work so they can get back to the regular appropriations process, the way that it is supposed to be done
01:58for the people, so that we're good stewards with their money. That hasn't been done here
02:01in a long time. And we said we want to get back to that. Now, I'm pleased that tonight on the
02:06CR we had three appropriations bills that we now will send over to the President's desk in
02:11just a short amount of time tonight to get signed into law. That's an innovation too. As you all know,
02:16it's been years since Congress actually did separate appropriations bills. I'm proud of
02:21that achievement, but I'm really sad that it took us so long to get here. It was so much
02:25pain that had to be endured to get to this point. Voters are going to remember which political
02:30party played games with their lives. They're going to remember that they did this for their
02:36own selfish purposes so that they could look tough to the radical elements of their base.
02:42And real people suffered because of that game. So now that we've got the lights back on, we've
02:47got the government reopened, the President will sign that triumphantly tonight, and Republicans
02:51will get right back to the work that we promised the American people that we will do. We're
02:55going to deliver for the American people as we have been doing. And I'll leave you with this
02:59thought. There's a split screen in America right now. There's a split screen. On one side
03:04of the screen you have President Trump and the Republican majorities in the Congress and the Senate
03:08in the House doing the work for the American people. Look what we've achieved in the first
03:1210 months of this year. You can make an argument that it's the most productive season for a
03:16new Congress and a new presidency, a new administration, at least in the modern era, maybe of all time.
03:23Just in this short amount of months, we got the border secured. We fulfilled that promise.
03:28We are working on the crime crisis around the country. We have new trade agreements. We have
03:33a return to American energy dominance. We have cut taxes, the largest tax cut in U.S. history
03:40in a literal sense. We're cutting regulations. We're ending fraud, waste and abuse out of
03:44government. We're shoring up the safety net programs, like Medicaid, so that it's there
03:48for the people that desperately need it and it is not being abused by illegal aliens and
03:53by young, able-bodied men who are not eligible to receive that. We are doing all this good
03:57work. The President, meanwhile, is using his authority to change the world, literally. He has
04:03ended eight wars around the globe. All of this is happening on the Republican side and so much
04:09more. That's on one side of the screen and on the other is the Democrat Party. And what have they
04:14done? What do they have to show for the last 10 months of government here? They shut the
04:18government down. They voted 15 times to close the government and exact that pain on everyone.
04:24We can never forget that. They haven't achieved anything beyond that except pushing ICE
04:28officers around and really spurring on political violence. So I want to say that there's a reason
04:34the Democrats are in disarray right now. There's a reason they don't have an identified leader
04:38of their party. There's a reason that their favorability, even amongst those in their own
04:42party, is the lowest of all time. They don't have a platform, a principle they can defend.
04:46They don't have a leader, except for Mondami, who's the new mayor of New York City and leading
04:51the party into Marxism and socialism. I think everybody should consider that split screen. I think you should
04:57look at it truthfully and honestly and objectively. And I think you can evaluate for yourself which
05:02party is working for the people. We're anxious to get that done, to work on health care and
05:06affordability and all the issues to continue doing what we've done. And we look forward
05:10to rolling that out for you in the next several days. A few questions. Yes.
05:13You said earlier that you would repeal that FBI provision that's in the bill right now.
05:19Do you have assurances from Leader Thune that he will bring it up in the Senate?
05:24Well, I did call Leader Thune this morning. I want to say that he is a principled leader. I've enjoyed
05:29working with him. We've got a great working relationship and a good friendship. He's a
05:33trustworthy, honest broker. And that's why I was so surprised when we found out about that provision.
05:38It was put in our clean CR at the last moment. I'm just to be honest, I'm very transparent with you
05:43all. I was very angry about it. I was. And a lot of my members called me and said,
05:46did you know about it? We had no idea. That was dropped in at the last minute. And I did not appreciate that,
05:52nor did most of the House members. Many of them are very angry about that. So we will be bringing
05:58it up. We'll probably pass it on suspension early next week and we'll send it over to the Senate.
06:01I had a conversation with Leader Thune early this morning about it. I think he regretted the way it
06:07was done and we had an honest conversation about that. I didn't ask him for any commitment at that
06:11time because I had a lot on my plate today and I've been busy ever since that conversation we had
06:15early this morning. But I'm going to speak as truthfully to him as I am to all of you and tell you
06:19that I think that was way out of line. I don't think that was a smart thing to do. I don't think
06:24it was the right thing to do. And the House is going to reverse it. We're going to repeal that.
06:27And I'm going to expect our colleagues in the Senate to do the same thing.
06:29You say that you're for full transparency. So why not just urge all the Republicans to vote for
06:36this Massey-Connor bill on the Epstein files next week? Put out all the files. Let the American
06:41public judge for themselves what these files are all about.
06:44Thank you for asking the question. We have been for maximum transparency of the Epstein files
06:48from the very beginning. What I was opposed to is the reckless disregard that was used
06:53in drafting the discharge petition. And we've been over this many times. But it was not drafted
06:58in such a way that it would adequately protect innocent victims. We have a responsibility to
07:03do that. There's as many as a thousand women, by some estimates, of people who have been victimized
07:08because of the sex trafficking and Epstein and all these horrendous, heinous crimes. And
07:12we can't have them subjected to any further harm. So we wanted to make sure that they were properly,
07:17properly whose names were properly redacted out of the files. But the discharge petition
07:21is not only reckless, it is also a totally moot point. The Oversight Committee has been
07:26working, as you all know, around the clock, working on this. And you have some of the toughest
07:31members of Congress on the Republican and Democrat side who are working in bipartisan fashion
07:35to go through and release those files. As we stand here tonight, I think it's, we're
07:39up to over 50,000 pages of records that are out in the open. You can go online tonight if
07:43you're at home and go through it yourself. And the Epstein estate files, thus far, has
07:48been the biggest tranche of important information. We found that outside of the scope of the discharge
07:55petition because it was never even anticipated or included in the discharge. The Oversight
07:59Committee, well let me finish, let me finish. The Oversight Committee has been digging into
08:03that. And some of the most valuable information was in the estate files. It includes Jeffrey Epstein's
08:08own personal logs, his travel logs, his financial ledgers, his daily calendar. All this is now
08:15out in the public, and more is to come. Chairman Comer of the Oversight Committee has done an
08:19extraordinary job. You have, again, some of the most notable members in Congress working
08:23on that around the clock, and they will continue to have full disclosure. I want to say this
08:27tonight, and I think this is a shame to a lot of the Hill Press Corps. I'm not going to
08:30name any of you by name, but I haven't seen many stories written yet about the fact that
08:34we put the discharge up for unanimous consent on the floor tonight. The Republicans, I, the
08:41Speaker, and the Republicans, asked for unanimous consent to just go ahead and pass the discharge
08:46because I think it's a moot point. The Democrats objected to the unanimous consent. Nobody's
08:52written a story about that. That's stunning to me. How can you miss that? If it was about
08:57transparency, if it was about full disclosure, there's two questions you should ask every
09:00Democrat in the House and Senate. Why didn't you bring this up during the four years of
09:04the Biden administration when the Biden DOJ had all these records the entire time? Nobody
09:09ever said a word about it. They didn't care. Now it's the biggest thing in the world. Didn't
09:12matter at all when Joe Biden had the files. And secondly, if they're for transparency, and
09:19they really want all this to be out, and there's such this urgency, then why did they vote down
09:23the unanimous consent to pass the discharge petition tonight? I can't answer that question, but
09:28they should. And every one of you should ask them about it. Yes. Thank you. There are several
09:31members of your own conference that support at least a one-year extension of ACA subsidies. Others
09:37have alternative plans. Now that you're beyond this and this January 30th deadline rooms, are you
09:42willing to put any one of those measures potentially on the floor? I've been asked a hundred times
09:48whether I'll commit to putting any ACA extension on the floor. What I have said from the very
09:54beginning, and we were consistent about this, and you all know from day one, the first order
09:57of business was to get the government open and working for the people again. It's the
10:00most basic responsibility, and we finally got that done tonight. And I said, as soon as the
10:04government was open, we would turn our attention to health care and all the other issues that
10:08are out there. We are willing to work and have always been willing to work in good faith
10:12with anybody in this building who wants to bring down the cost of health care. The Unaffordable
10:18Care Act, the ACA, did exactly the opposite of what they promised. When the Democrats passed
10:24their health care law back in 2010, you all remember, the average American would have their
10:28premiums reduced by $2,500. They swore to you, and that was not true. And I think the
10:34people that drew it up knew it was not true in the very beginning. It was a lie. The people
10:38that were the architects of Obamacare, of the ACA, wanted single payer. They designed a system
10:44that they knew they had to know, because they're really intelligent folks, was going to implode
10:48on itself. They knew that it was not sustainable. And what has happened since that time, and
10:51we're going to be going through this in great detail next week. Get ready. We're going to
10:55take you through a timeline of who destroyed American health care. And I'll give you a
10:59hint. It didn't have anything to do with the Republican Party. It was the Democrats.
11:02They're the ones that gave you the Unaffordable Care Act. They're the ones that have been trying
11:05to subsidize it and prop it up and add to it ever since. We're the ones that have been
11:11trying to fix it. The Republican Party has. What has happened since the Democrats wrecked
11:15American health care is that your premiums have gone up by some cases 60 percent and some
11:20cases more. And it's going to go up further. So their solution is right now they want to
11:24subsidize it further. They want to subsidize insurance companies. They want the COVID-era
11:28extension that was created by the Democrats themselves. They created the subsidy. They are
11:34the ones that put the expiration date of December 31 of 2025 on that. They knew it wasn't going
11:40to be permanent because it was a boondoggle. And now they're trying to claim it's Republicans
11:43fault. The Democrats created it. The Democrats broke it. The Democrats are driving your cost
11:48up. Who are you going to trust to fix health care? It's the Republican Party. Because we
11:52have volumes of ideas on how to do this, on how to fix it, on how to drive costs down and
11:57how to increase access to care and quality of care. And you're going to see all that vigorous
12:02debate. So the answer to your question is, am I going to guarantee a vote on ACA unreformed
12:06COVID-era subsidies that is just a boondoggle to insurance companies and robs the taxpayer?
12:12We've got a lot of work to do on that. The Republicans would demand a lot of reforms before
12:17anything like that was ever possible. And we have to go through that deliberative process.
12:21We have 435, well, currently 433 members of the House of Representatives. There's a lot
12:27of opinions in this building and on our side, certainly a lot of opinions on how to fix health
12:31care and make it more affordable. I have to allow that process to play out.
12:35I'll leave you with this. The biggest objection that I had to Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries,
12:39who were playing political games with people's lives when they shut the government down, was
12:44Chuck Schumer came out and said the quiet part out loud. I don't even think he realized,
12:48he has no self-awareness. But he came and cried to all of you that I would not agree to
12:53go into a back room and make a four corners agreement on these issues. That just he and I and Hakeem
12:59Jeffries and Leader Thun would go in a room and make this decision for the entire population
13:04of America and block out all of our colleagues as if they had no voice in it. That is why
13:09Washington is broken. That's why Congress hasn't worked well for people. That's why
13:12they don't have a lot of faith in what goes on here. And I'm committed to trying to restore
13:16that faith. And one way we do that is we get back to regular order. We allow all the duly
13:20elected members of this body to have their voices heard. I'm not playing games and Chuck Schumer,
13:24I'm not going in a back room with you and making a four corners deal on anything. And I hope
13:28you understand that. Thank you all. We got the government open. Let's celebrate tonight.
13:47We got the app now.
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