The defection of seven Democratic senators and one independent opened the door on Sunday around midnight (local time) for the end of the longest partial government shutdown in U.S. history, which on Monday, as it entered its seventh week, reached its forty-first day. It also returned the party to familiar territory: the existential crisis from which they seemed to be emerging after a long year immersed in it, following their resounding victories on November 4 in New York, New Jersey, and Virginia.

Voter support appeared to reward the Democratic opposition to US President Donald Trump at the polls, and particularly their refusal to make deals with rivals to reopen the government's spending taps until Republicans commit to not eliminating a portion of the health coverage included in the Obamacare program at the end of the year, as planned. These subsidies were approved during the pandemic, and their anticipated end will drive up the cost of health insurance for millions of Americans.

So why concede now, with a deal that doesn't include that hard-won gain? That's the same question being asked by 40 fellow senators who voted against the new Republican funding proposal on Sunday. It's still in the approval process (it needs final approval in the Senate, passage in the House of Representatives, and the president's signature), but after 14 failed votes, one thing is already certain: the conservatives have finally achieved the supermajority of 60 votes required by the filibuster rules in the Senate (where they hold 53 seats and one dissenter: veteran Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky).

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries addressed the press at noon on Monday at the Capitol to reiterate what he had already stated on social media: his party would also not vote in favor of the new proposal, because, he added, it contributes to"worsening the health crisis" the country is facing.

The defectors, three of whom—John Fetterman (Pennsylvania), Catherine Cortez Masto (Nevada), and Angus King (Maine)—voted Republican from the start, held a press conference Sunday night to try to justify themselves, saying the agreement they support was “the only possible deal” and highlighting what it does include: reopening the federal government's funding until the end of January, when there may be another crisis; funding for food stamps, which 42 million people depend on, through fiscal year 2026; and a commitment from the Trump administration to reinstate employees laid off during these 41 days, to retroactively pay back wages to those who kept their jobs, and to not lay off any more federal employees in the next two and a half months.

Criticisms of Schumer

The group members, which also includes Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Tim Kaine of Virginia, Dick Durbin of Illinois, and Jacky Rosen of Nevada, voted for different reasons—from Kaine's concern for the legion of civil servants in his state to pressure from Nevada's tourism industry. Whatever their reasons, they all faced similar criticism from their own party members on Monday. In Shaheen's case, the censure for the capitulation even came from her own daughter, fellow Democratic politician Stefany Shaheen, who expressed her displeasure on social media.

The shockwave is also hitting Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, whom his fellow Democrats blame for failing to maintain cohesion within their ranks. “He’s no longer fit and should be replaced. If he can’t lead the fight to stop the soaring rise in health insurance premiums for Americans, what is he fighting for?” said Representative Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, in a social media post on Sunday. Ezra Klein, perhaps the most influential columnist on the party, wrote an article in The New York Times titled: “What Are Democrats Thinking?”

The agreement—reached, according to Klein, “in exchange for very little”—also includes a commitment to hold a Senate vote on extending Obamacare subsidies (the name given to the Affordable Care Act of the president who championed it), although it seems clear that it will accomplish little. Neither the Republicans nor Trump, who has been attacking the law for days, seem very willing to be persuaded on this point by their rivals. The dissidents argue that this vote will at least serve to expose their rivals' stance on this issue, which is of great concern to Americans.

Meanwhile, Sunday's Senate agreement is just the beginning of the process that will hopefully lead to the reopening of the government before the end of the week, which, to further complicate matters, includes a holiday this Tuesday, Veterans Day. Republican Majority Leader Mike Johnson appeared Monday morning to warn members of Congress to return to Washington as soon as possible to vote. He gave them 36 hours to get back to Washington.

The House of Representatives has been in recess since before the start of the government shutdown, ordered by Johnson. Once it resumes its work, Democrats will force a vote, with the help of a handful of Republicans, to compel the Justice Department to release the Epstein papers, which pertain to the trials against the millionaire pedophile. He died in 2019 before facing justice, while awaiting his fate in a New York jail cell. Epstein was a friend of Trump, and the president's name, who has not been linked to any of the financier's crimes, appears repeatedly in those papers.

This Monday, Trump weighed in on the Capitol Hill battle from his social media account, Truth, with a message promising a $10,000 bonus to"patriotic" air traffic controllers who continued working these past weeks despite not receiving their pay. To the rest, he issued a threat whose implications are unclear:"To those who did nothing but complain and take days off (...) I AM NOT HAPPY WITH YOU. (...) You will have a negative mark, at least in my eyes, on your record."

These federal employees, such as airport security personnel, are considered essential workers. The remaining 750,000 government employees are suspended from pay and employment during any government shutdown. They all feared that Trump would follow through on another threat: not to pay them back wages. That fear dissipated after learning the details of the Senate agreement.

Among the consequences of the government shutdown—which has paralyzed dozens of federal agencies and led to the closure or neglect of museums, monuments, and national parks; pushed thousands of government employees to food banks; and paused the distribution of food stamps on which millions of low-income people depend—perhaps the effects on air travel have been the most severe. They have also placed the greatest pressure on lawmakers.

Last Friday, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) implemented a decision to cancel hundreds of flights at the 40 largest airports in the United States to address air traffic congestion caused by air traffic controller absences and resignations. Following a chaotic weekend, Monday dawned with forecasts predicting 1,485 flight cancellations and 825 delays, according to the website FlightAware. The situation worsened as the day progressed.

It's unclear when US airports will return to normal. While the government's reopening process continued slowly at the Capitol, no one was in a position on Monday to say when the longest shutdown in US history would end. Nor was it clear what all that suffering had accomplished. In Washington, the most frequently asked question the day after the capitulation of eight senators was whether the agreement reached in the Senate on Sunday could have been reached by the boxers even before they put on their gloves on October 1st.