How Minnesota’s House delegation voted on ending shutdown

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Minnesota’s House delegation voted along party lines Wednesday night to end the nation’s longest government shutdown.

The four Republicans — Majority Whip Tom Emmer and Reps. Michelle Fischbach, Pete Stauber and Brad Finstad — voted to reopen the government. The state’s Democrats — Reps. Betty McCollum, Ilhan Omar, Angie Craig and Kelly Morrison — voted in opposition, decrying the absence of a key concession: extending federal health care subsidies.

“I don’t know why the American people had to suffer through this,” said Emmer, who represents central Minnesota, speaking to a St. Cloud radio program. “I know they’re going to going to figure out who did it to them.”

McCollum, who represents St. Paul and eastern suburbs, took to the House floor on Wednesday night, saying passage of the bill meant her constituents would now need to “choose between heating their homes, feeding their families or taking their children to the doctor.”

“It’s a terrible deal for the American people,” McCollum said.

The measure to reopen the government after 43 days, the longest shutdown in U.S. history, proceeded to President Donald Trump’s desk Wednesday night after passing the House on mostly partisan lines. Trump signed the bill soon after the vote.

Funding will keep the government open — paying airport security workers and National Guard personnel and reopening Smithsonian museums — until the end of January for most agencies.

“We believe the long national nightmare will be over tonight,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters ahead of the vote. “It was completely and utterly foolish and pointless in the end, as we said all along.”

After six weeks of holding out, Democrats did not gain the concession they sought, an extension of the Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire at year’s end, sending costs skyward for those enrolled in ACA marketplace plans.

Enrollees’ payments will roughly double, according to KFF, a health care nonprofit.

But the return to government operations also ushers in relief to federal employees, many of whom had either been furloughed or were working without a paycheck.

“Families facing missed paychecks, grounded flights, and vital services cut off all for pure political spite,” said Stauber, who represents northeastern Minnesota, in a post to social media announcing his support for the legislation.

The bill also allows eight U.S. senators who had phone records subpoenaed by the Biden administration after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol to seek up to $500,000 in payments for each alleged privacy violation.

Before the vote, Fischbach, who represents the western half of Minnesota, responded to Democrats who called that payment corrupt.

“I never said, Mr. Speaker, that this bill was perfect,” said Fischbach, who noted a colleague was pursuing legislation to strip the provision. “What we do agree on is that it is critically important to get the government open.”

Before debate, Johnson swore in Arizona’s Adelita Grijalva, a Democrat, who won a special election in September. In short order, Grijalva became the 218th signature on a petition forcing a House vote on a bill to force the Justice Department to release all files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Democrats in Minnesota’s delegation have signed the petition. No Minnesota Republicans have signed the petition.

Frustration remained for many Democrats who blamed the mostly moderate and swing-state senators for caving to Republicans, less than a week after elections across the country that largely showed momentum for the minority party, including gubernatorial wins in Virginia and New Jersey.

In a video posted to social media, Omar, who represents Minneapolis, disputed calls her party should be blamed for the shutdown.

“I really do not understand what Republicans think is supposed to happen when they control the House, they control the Senate, and they control this administration,” Omar said.

Craig, who represents the southern Twin Cities and parts of southern Minnesota, posted a video explaining her “no” vote.

“It’s just a shame that the speaker and that the president would not come to the table to do anything about these rising health care costs,” Craig said.

Finstad applauded the end of the “needless shutdown” and said in a statement Congress must “finish the job by delivering a long-term budget that strengthens our nations security, supports rural communities and restores confidence in how Washington does business.”