The government shutdown has just ended, after 43 days. A group of eight moderate Democratic Senators bucked Minority Leader Schumer and decided to provide the votes needed to get an appropriations bill through the Senate, 60-40. The bill funds the government through the end of January, and funds a small number of programs–including SNAP– for all of fiscal 2026. It also reverses mass layoffs implemented during the shutdown and prevents further layoffs through January.

Speaker Johnson brought the House back into session so that it could pass the Senate bill, which has since been signed by Trump. Before doing that, he belatedly allowed the new Rep. Grijalva (D-AZ) to be admitted, several weeks after her by-election victory. She promptly provided the 218th vote for the Massie-Khanna discharge petition relating to the Epstein files. Trump apparently lobbied both Rep. Boebert and Rep. Mace (who will be running for Governor of South Carolina next fall) to try and get them to withdraw their support for the petition, without success. As such there will likely be a House vote in the near future regarding release of “the Epstein files”. Interest in the subject was revitalized yesterday as House Democrats released some emails that Epstein had sent that referenced Trump.

With the shutdown over, the legal dispute over SNAP funding likely becomes moot. On Sunday night the 1st Circuit declined to stay the lower court’s decision, putting things back in Justice Jackson’s hands; however, by this time it was known that the Senate moderates were working on an end to the shutdown. On Tuesday, SCOTUS extended the previous administrative stay for an additional two days, over Justice Jackson’s apparent objection.

A new AP-NORC poll, released today but conducted before the end of the government shutdown, has Trump’s approval rating at a new low of 36%. On the more specific question of whether the interviewee approves of Trump’s handling of the federal government, only 33% said yes, down from 43% back in the DOGE-days of March.