After a 16-day-long government shutdown and just a day before the U.S. Treasury would have lost its ability to borrow money to pay federal debts, the U.S. Congress passed a bill to reopen government and extend the debt-ceiling deadline to Feb. 7.
The bill’s approval came after members of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives decided to concede their ongoing political fight over the Affordable Care Act and temporarily work with Democrats to pass the bill.
The Democrat-controlled Senate wrote the bipartisan bill to end the shutdown and extend the debt ceiling. The Senate passed the bill 81 to 18 early Wednesday night. The House took the legislation up later Wednesday and passed it 285 to 144.
Wisconsin’s federal legislators largely voted along party lines with Democratic representatives Ron Kind, Gwen Moore and Mark Pocan as well as Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Rep. Reid Ribble, R-Wis., voting for the bill.
Republican representatives Jim Sensenbrenner, Sean Duffy, Tom Petri, Paul Ryan and Sen. Ron Johnson, voted against the bill.
Pocan said he was “pleased” the shutdown ended, but said it caused “needless damage” to the economy and the public’s faith.
Duffy said he did not vote for the bill because it delayed federal spending reform discussions until February.
President Barack Obama promised his signature to the bill at a press conference earlier Wednesday.
