U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy discusses the cuts to air traffic on Nov. 11 at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago.

WASHINGTON – The House of Representatives will vote Wednesday, Nov. 12, on a funding package to end the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history.

The measure is expected to pass and then go to the desk of President Donald Trump, who has said he will approve it. A small group of Democrats in the Senate announced Sunday night they had negotiated an agreement with Republicans and the White House to resolve the funding crisis.

"The deal is very good," the president said Monday.

If lawmakers manage to sidestep widespread flight disruptions in returning to Washington, they'll take the penultimate step in moving past a political mess that has lasted for more than a month and left millions of Americans unable to afford food, travel and rely on countless government services.

The history-making debacle has bitterly divided Washington, and congressional Democrats in particular. In a concession from the GOP, the latest deal would reverse Trump's recent layoffs of thousands of federal workers amid the shutdown ‒ but it would not extend expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies as Democrats had demanded for weeks.

Instead, the bill only guarantees a stand-alone vote on the health care subsidies in December before the credits expire at the end of the year and send health care premiums skyrocketing. It's unclear if enough Republicans support extending the funds for the effort to pass in the Senate, and Speaker Mike Johnson has not committed to holding a vote in the House.

What happened to SNAP benefits?

The nation’s leading food aid program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), has been caught in a series of legal challenges and funding disruptions over the last few weeks due to the congressional impasse.

For the first time in the food stamp program’s 60-year history, funding lapsed on Nov. 1, launching a scramble to try to keep benefits going for the 42 million Americans who depend on them.

A few days before the lapse, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it couldn’t use $6 billion of contingency funds to pay for SNAP, although the agency has used it in at least two previous shutdowns. That was challenged in courts, and a series of back-and-forth between the agency and court orders has further confused and frustrated Americans who need the benefits.

The latest move came on Nov. 11, when the Supreme Court declined to order the administration to fully fund the food benefits, giving Congress time to settle the matter.

-Kathryn Palmer & Sarah Wire

When did the shutdown begin?

The federal government shutdown began just after midnight on Oct. 1, after Democrats and Republicans came to loggerheads over the extension of expiring health care subsidies for millions of Americans.

It became the longest shutdown in U.S. history on Nov. 5, bypassing the last one in 2019, which occurred during Trump’s first administration. That one lasted 35 days and cost the economy about $3 billion, or 0.02% of GDP, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

-Kathryn Palmer

House Democratic leaders urge “no” vote on bill to reopen government

House Democratic leaders urged their colleagues to vote against the Senate legislation to reopen the government because of the lack of additional health care funding that lawmakers warn could leave millions without health insurance.

Most Democrats in the House and Senate have opposed temporary funding measures to keep the government open. Democrats demanded a restoration of spending cuts to Medicaid and an extension of subsidies set to expire Dec. 31 under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

But eight senators who caucus with Democrats joined Republicans in approving the bill in the Senate. The bill cleared a key hurdle overnight when the House Rules Committee agreed to rules on how the bill will be debated Nov. 12.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York, joined others in proposing an amendment to extend Obamacare subsidies for three years, but the proposal failed.

House Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Massachusetts, sent out a message to colleagues recommending a “no” vote on the bill.

“This does not have to happen to the American people. This is a choice,” Clark told the Rules Committee. “Democrats have been presenting off-ramps all year. We've been giving you a chance to reverse course day after day.”

--Bart Jansen

Poll: Many Americans want Democrats to hold firm on shutdown

A new survey found that 41% of Americans believe Democrats shouldn’t vote to fund the government unless the legislation includes the health care changes they’ve been demanding.

The Economist/YouGov poll of U.S. adults released Nov. 11 comes as eight members of the Democratic Caucus in the Senate voted with Republicans on legislation to reopen the government. The House is expected to vote today on the bill, which doesn’t include an extension of health care subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year.

Democrats for weeks fought to include an extension of the Affordable Care Act premium subsidies in government funding legislation, and many on the left have criticized the compromise funding bill as insufficient without the extension.

The survey also found that 36% of Americans blame Republicans in Congress more for the shutdown, compared to 34% who blame Democrats more and 24% who blame both equally.

-Zac Anderson

When will the House vote?

The House convenes at noon for the first time since before the shutdown began Oct. 1 and debate on legislation to end the shutdown is expected to begin about 4 p.m.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-Louisiana, estimated the first of several votes would come about 5:10 p.m. and voting should be completed by 7:15 p.m.

The initial debate and vote will be to set the rules governing the debate. The rules call for an hour of debate on the Senate version of the bill. The bill would reopen the government until Jan. 30 and provide back pay to federal workers for the shutdown.

Most Democrats remain opposed to the bill for failing to extend subsidies set to expire Dec. 31 under the Affordable Care Act, which is also known as Obamacare.

Republican congressional leaders agreed to negotiate a potential extension after the shutdown ends. A Senate vote on potential legislation is expected the second week of December.

--Bart Jansen

Duffy urges House to act and vote to end the government shutdown

During a news conference Tuesday in Chicago, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy urged the House to follow the Senate and vote to end the shutdown.

If the House doesn't act and the government remains shuttered, Duffy warned of dire consequences for the nation's air traffic system. Some airlines, he said, may choose to ground their fleets.

“If the House doesn’t act, I think we’ll see more than 10% disruption — and possibly airlines grounding planes altogether," Duffy said at a news conference at O'Hare International Airport. "That’s how serious this is.”

“If the House doesn’t pass this bill, I think you’re going to look at Saturday, Sunday and Monday as tiddlywinks," he later added. "It was beautiful. It’s going to get much worse than that.”

Congressmen opt for carpooling, motorcycling to make it in time for vote

One Republican congressman was so concerned about flight delays that he opted to drive his motorcycle roughly 950 miles back to the nation's capital instead of braving an airport.

Rep. Derrick Van Orden left his home state of Wisconsin on Monday night to make the approximately 15-hour voyage through freezing temperatures.

"You may ask, Derrick, why are you on a Harley Davidson when it's 32 degrees outside?" he said in a video posted on social media from somewhere along the Mississippi River. "Because they shut down the government – the Democrats –flights are too unreliable."

GOP Reps. Rick Crawford of Arkansas and Trent Kelly of Mississippi decided to carpool back to the capital.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: House gears up for vote to end government shutdown. Live updates

Reporting by Zachary Schermele, Joey Garrison, Michael Loria, Bart Jansen, Zac Anderson and Kathryn Palmer, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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