Government shutdowns are awful. People get laid off or lose critical services, citizens with questions about their tax refunds or Social Security benefits can’t get answers, air traffic grows chaotic and potentially even dangerous, and the economy suffers. It’s the responsibility of the president and Congress to do everything they can to avoid shutdowns — or if we are in one, to get out quickly.
That’s why, after 38 days of mounting economic pain, risks to Americans’ safety and no clear end in sight, I joined the bipartisan group initiated by Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire and Angus King of Maine, who had been working with Republicans to find a deal to end the latest government shutdown. I understand the earnest criticism from those who say that extending the shutdown, which began Oct. 1, would have forced Republicans to offer more concessions to Democrats on critical issues such as health care. But I was at the negotiating table, and I believe the chances of that were near zero.
Every day we refused to acknowledge what it would take to strike a deal, the riskier continuing the shutdown became — for both Americans and their government institutions.
Recall how the nation got here. In September, President Trump — aware that we needed a new government funding bill on Oct. 1 — instructed Republicans in Congress to draft a budget and refuse to deal with Democrats. Democrats proposed an alternative that would fund the government and make health care coverage more affordable, and requested a meeting with the president to negotiate a deal.
After canceling the first meeting, Mr. Trump finally met with congressional leaders on Sept. 29, but he then posted an A.I.-generated video on social media of a Democratic leader wearing a sombrero, apparently a juvenile reference to the Republican lie that Democrats wanted to spend money on health care for undocumented immigrants. He was never serious about negotiating. Democrats voted against the Republican plan, and the shutdown began.
The Senate stayed in Washington, working. The House Republican leadership had already sent its members home. The president did seemingly everything except work to reopen the government. He met with the president of Argentina after offering a $20 billion bailout to a nation undercutting American soybean farmers, took a wrecking ball to the White House, hosted a “Great Gatsby” party at Mar-a-Lago and jetted around the world.
People suffered. Food banks across the country ran out of supplies, and Americans went hungry after the Trump administration cruelly withheld SNAP benefits, previously known as food stamps. Nearly 1.5 million federal employees went without pay, including air traffic controllers, leading to canceled flights and significant delays at airports.
The White House meaningfully engaged only after Republicans suffered big losses in last week’s elections. After a lot of back and forth last weekend, we reached an agreement around 5 p.m. on Sunday to reopen the government.
I negotiated the inclusion of several provisions to protect federal workers. Since January, hardworking public servants have started every day wondering whether they would receive emails in their inboxes telling them that they were fired. This was a huge win for a work force that has been demonized, villainized and illegally purged for the past 10 months.
The deal also includes full-year spending bills that ensure robust funding for food assistance, veterans services and other key programs — and a prompt vote on a Democratic proposal to extend health-care tax credits in order to save Americans from skyrocketing health care costs.
I understand those who believe that continuing the shutdown would have compelled Republicans to restrain health care costs, despite their unwavering claim that they would only engage on the issue once the government reopened. I have close knowledge of key actors, and I do not believe Republicans would have conceded on health care during the shutdown. That was true even after their electoral wipeout last week, and even with polls showing that many Americans blamed Republicans for the shutdown. More likely, the chaos of continuing the shutdown would have led them to eliminate the Senate filibuster so they could pass a government funding bill with no Democratic votes, a dangerous consolidation of one-party rule.
I believe that we will win this health care fight — either in Congress or at the ballot box in 2026. Democrats have already set the stage since the start of the shutdown by rallying around this issue, and we have successfully shown the American people where we stand. Now we can have this critical debate without the growing pain of the shutdown.
Incoming criticism has been balanced by expressions of gratitude from labor leaders to the Capitol Police, food bank operators to fired special education staffers and military families to Virginia’s Democratic governor-elect, Abigail Spanberger. The thanks that meant the most to me came from the Families of Flight 5342, those who lost loved ones in the air collision in Washington in January and are now fighting for safer skies for all Americans. They seek “stability, safety and public service.” That request sounds hard to achieve, even a relic of a past era, at a time like this. But if they refuse to give up on us, we shouldn’t lose faith, either.
Tim Kaine is a Democratic U.S. senator representing Virginia.
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