US Senate advances bipartisan spending bill toward ending longest govt shutdown

WASHINGTON -- The US Senate on Sunday night advanced a bipartisan spending package in a bid to end the longest government shutdown, which has entered its 40th day and caused a series of escalating disruptions.

The upper chamber voted 60-40 in a key procedural vote to move forward a spending package, which would fund most federal agencies at current levels through Jan. 30, and fund the Agriculture Department, the Veterans Affairs Department and military construction projects, and the operations of Congress, for the full fiscal year.

This package will provide full-year funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program known as SNAP, whose funding has been put in jeopardy amid the prolonged government shutdown.

As part of Democrats' agreement to end the shutdown, Senate Majority Leader John Thune promised Senate Democrats a vote "no later than second week in December" to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies that are due to expire at the end of the year.

After the key procedural vote to end the filibuster, the spending package will possibly be approved in the Senate's final vote. The revised proposal still needs to be approved by the House of Representatives and sent to President Donald Trump for his signature.

As the two parties made progress, nearly 3,000 flights were canceled and over 10,000 delayed nationwide on Sunday, underscoring the shutdown's increasing impact on Americans' daily lives.