In a vote of 222-209, the House of Representatives approved a bill to reopen the federal government. It now goes to President Donald Trump, who is expected to sign it in the oval office at 9:45 p.m.

By a vote of 60-40, the U.S. Senate approved a bill Monday that would end the government shutdown, which entered Day 42 on Tuesday.

Eight Senate Democrats, including the No. 2 Democrat, Sen. Dick Durbin, broke ranks to pass the continuing resolution, which will fund the government through January. The bill now goes to the House of Representatives for a final vote. Democrats had previously refused to advance a bill without extending healthcare subsidies that are set to expire Jan. 1.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said he will not support the bill.

At an emergency hearing Monday afternoon, Judge Indira Talwani, of the U.S. District of Massachusetts, sharply criticized the government for a letter sent late Saturday threatening states with legal action if they do not reverse any actions taken to make Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits available.

The judge said that a government memo sent Friday indicated to states that it was safe to send out funds, and it is unreasonable to require them to undo that now. She pointed to language in the memo that said the government “will” complete the process to make funds available, not that it “may” do so.

Tyler Becker, the government’s lawyer, argued that the memo was an attempt to comply with a court order from a judge in Rhode Island before it was paused by the Supreme Court Friday night. It did not tell states to begin disbursing the funds, he claimed.

“I understand that you’re couching the language,” Talwani said of government’s characterization of the Friday memo. “This is not saying there is any thought, idea [or] inkling that the government is not going to comply with the Rhode Island court’s order.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture did not send out revised guidance until Saturday night, nearly a full day after the Supreme Court’s stay. The Saturday letter instructed states to “immediately undo” any steps to send out SNAP benefits or face consequences.

At the end of the hearing, the judge said she intends to order the government not to retaliate against states that paid out funds prior to the USDA’s Saturday letter. She issued a temporary order to that effect Monday morning. If the USDA is just trying to comply with the law, she said, “a piece of that is not trying to play vindictive games with the states.”

Talwani also said she may “issue an order essentially parallel to the Rhode Island court,” to protect against the government’s claim that the states were not parties to that court’s order requiring payment. Becker said the government intended that argument, made to the Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit, to mean the states should have waited for USDA guidance instead of relying on the court order, blaming “long hours” and lack of pay due to the government shutdown for the lack of clarity.

Lawyers for the states, who were present at the hour-long remote hearing, spoke only a handful of times, with the judge spending most of the time asking pointed questions of Becker, at times on the verge of yelling.

Becker argued that the order from Rhode Island only required the government to make the money available to the states, not to SNAP beneficiaries. “Some states have decided to go ahead, which is completely unauthorized,” Becker said. “Some states jumped the gun.”

The judge said the government is to blame, adding that it chose to send “threatening letters on a Saturday night” rather than immediately advising the states to stop sending out funds while the order was paused. “I understand there’s now a mess on our hands,” Talwani said. “What you have right now is confusion of the agency’s own making.”

In an order issued just before midnight Sunday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit denied the government’s request to pause an order requiring immediate payment of November Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Benefits while an appeal is pending.

“We cannot conclude that the district court abused its discretion in determining that the overwhelming evidence of widespread harm that a stay would cause right now, by leaving tens of millions of Americans without food as winter approaches, outweighed the potential monetary harm to the government and CNP, months into the future,” a 3-judge panel of the 1st Circuit wrote.

Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Friday night order pausing the payments remains in effect until Tuesday night unless she or the Supreme Court withdraws or extends it.

Monday morning, Jackson ordered the government to state by 11 a.m. whether it intends to appeal the 1st Circuit’s decision to the Supreme Court. In a letter to the clerk, Solicitor General John Sauer said the government plans to do so. Jackson ordered the government to file a brief on the matter by 4 p.m. The parties seeking to resume payments have until 8 a.m. Tuesday to file a response.

In a related case from the District of Massachusetts, which is separate from the one before the 1st Circuit and the Supreme Court, Judge Indira Talwani granted a temporary restraining order preventing the government from requiring states to reverse SNAP payments made between its conflicting memos from Friday afternoon and Saturday evening. An emergency hearing is scheduled for 3:30 p.m.

“Now that Massachusetts has issued full benefits – something the federal government should have done in the first place – the President is trying to claw back those resources from children, elderly, veterans, and people with disabilities who desperately need them,” Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell stated. “My office will not let this administration continue to use Massachusetts residents’ lives as a political bargaining chip. This chaos and confusion must stop. We’ll see them in Court.”

Sen. John Thune, the majority leader, introduced a related spending bill before using a procedural maneuver that delays consideration for one legislative day. The motion lawmakers passed tonight permits up to 30 hours of debate before the next procedural vote. The Senate is now adjourned until 11 a.m. Monday.

Leaders in the House of Representatives told members they can expect 36 hours notice before a vote on the funding measures later this week, according to The New York Times. The House has not been in session since September.

After a vote lasting more than two hours, the Senate passed the first in a series of procedural votes on its way to reopen the government.

The Senate will need to hold at least three more votes, which may take several days depending on whether senators raise objections or propose amendments to draw out the process. Democrats had refused to advance any budget bill without a deal to extend healthcare subsidies that were set to expire in January.

The plan involves passing three spending bills that would fund the government through January in exchange for a healthcare vote later this year, according to reports from the Associated Press.

Sen. John Thune, the Republican leader, called for the vote after Independent Maine Sen. Angus King and Democratic New Hampshire Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan broke ranks and expressed support for the measure.

Senators Tim Kaine, John Fetterman, Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen also voted yes, as did Sen. Dick Durbin, the minority whip.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader, voted no. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries also said he would not support the plan.

The New York Times reports that Texas Sen. John Coryn is on his way to the Capitol from the airport. The vote was originally scheduled for 15 minutes.

Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican, is the only Senator who has not yet voted as the roll call enters its third hour.

The first procedural vote is now one vote away from passage, which would open the door to a second vote to begin debate and amendments to H.R. 5371, “the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act” on the Senate floor. Final passage may take several days, especially as the measure is opposed by the Democratic leaders in both houses.

The Senate, in a rare Sunday session, is voting to advance a bill that would reopen the federal government after a record-breaking 40-day shutdown.

Senators began the first of at least four votes at 8:30 p.m., after reports that a critical bloc of Senate Democrats are willing to vote to reopen the government following closed-door meetings.

The government shutdown, now the longest in history, entered Day 40 on Sunday, continuing to affect federal workers and services in Massachusetts and across the U.S.

With the shutdown extending into November, many families in Massachusetts lost access to federally funded programs that cover childcare, heating bills, and school lunches. Organizations such as Head Start rely on federal grants, typically given in October or November. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits for November are also delayed.

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The status of November Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits remains uncertain after the Supreme Court granted an emergency request to pause court rulings that would have required immediate disbursal of contingency funds.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the program, announced in October that November benefits would not be distributed due to the ongoing government shutdown, which is now the longest in history.

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The Department of Education has experienced significant struggles from the government shutdown, which has led to a lawsuit from federal workers.

According to the department’s contingency plan, around 87% of its workers will be furloughed until the shutdown ceases. The department will no longer investigate civil rights complaints or issue new federal grants until normal activity resumes, but student loan processes will continue as normal.

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