Government Reopens With Strong Support From Texas Republicans

By Marijke Friedman and Gabby Birenbaum, The Texas Tribune

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. House on Wednesday passed the Senate’s funding deal to end the country’s longest-ever government shutdown. President Donald Trump quickly signed the legislation, paving the way for federal agencies to reopen after a six-week freeze.

By a vote of 222-209, the House voted in favor of legislation to fund the government through Jan. 31 — with some agencies and programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, paid for through the end of the fiscal year in September.

In all, 24 of the 25 House Republicans from Texas voted in favor of the bill; Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, was one of two members in the chamber who did not vote. All but one of Texas’ 12 Democratic members were opposed, with Rep. Henry Cuellar of Laredo among the six House Democrats who joined with Republicans in support.

Federal employees will receive back pay for the weeks they worked without pay since the shutdown began Oct. 1. Those who were laid off during the shutdown will also return to their jobs, with the Trump administration agreeing to the rehires as part of a deal reached with a handful of Senate Democrats, whose support gave the bill enough support to pass the upper chamber on Monday.

As part of the agreement, Senate Democrats will also get a vote on an extension of the Affordable Care Act subsidies that have been at the center of the shutdown dispute. The future of the tax credits remains in doubt, however: Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, has not promised to bring the issue to the House floor, and many House Republicans — including some from Texas — have publicly called for major reforms or an outright end to the subsidies.

Democratic lawmakers from Texas and across the country have slammed the defecting Senate Democrats for agreeing to a deal that did not include a renewal of the health care tax credits, which are set to expire at the end of the year. An end to the subsidies would produce a sharp rise in premiums that could result in hundreds of thousands, if not over a million, Texans dropping ACA coverage.

Rep. Morgan Luttrell, R-Magnolia, blasted Democrats for previously opposing stopgap spending bills on the grounds that they did not extend the ACA credits, only to eventually support a funding deal that also did not address the health care subsidies.

“For over a month, Democrats chose partisan politics over paying our military and serving our veterans,” Luttrell said in a statement. “They forced this shutdown, prolonged the unnecessary suffering for our veteran communities and military families, and have nothing to show for it except the chaos they created."

Cuellar said in a statement that he voted for the funding deal because the shutdown created unnecessary hardship for his constituents. Despite voting with Republicans, Cuellar called on Congress to extend the ACA tax credits to keep health care costs down.

“Today, I voted to reopen the government so we can get critical programs back on track,” he said. “I am ready to work in a bipartisan manner to protect affordable health care and deliver meaningful relief to the American people.”

The funding package includes a provision intact that criminalizes the sale of almost all consumable hemp products nationwide, restoring a similar ban to the state-level one vetoed by Gov. Greg Abbott earlier this year.

Rep. Pete Sessions, a Waco Republican who was a vocal proponent of the hemp ban, praised the bill for closing a loophole “that allowed intoxicating and dangerous high-potency THC products like Delta-8 to flood our communities.”

Unless Congress reverses course, the ban is set to start a year after the legislation goes into effect. Opponents of the provision warn it will effectively shut down Texas’ $8 billion hemp industry and the thousands of jobs associated with the sale of consumable THC products.