Four Challenges Ahead of House Vote to Resolve U.S. Government Shutdown

Tue Nov 11 2025 18:52:34 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

The House of Representatives faces crucial decisions this week as they prepare to vote on a spending bill to end the prolonged U.S. government shutdown, with potential obstacles involving healthcare subsidies and party divisions.

As the House of Representatives prepares to vote on a Senate-approved spending bill aimed at ending the historic U.S. government shutdown, four major hurdles could impede progress: the healthcare subsidy debate, potential Democratic opposition, the need for Republican unity, and travel delays impacting lawmakers' return to Washington.

A day after the US Senate passed a spending bill to end the longest-ever government shutdown, the budget fight now moves to the House of Representatives. The lower chamber of Congress is expected to vote this week on the funding measure. Unlike in the Senate, if House Republicans stay united, they don't need any Democrats to pass the budget. But the margin for error is razor thin.

Here are four potential hold-ups for the budget, before it can clear Congress and land on the president's desk for signing into law.

Will House Republicans budge on healthcare?

A key sticking point throughout the shutdown has been a desire on the part of Democrats to attach to the spending bill a renewal of tax credits that make health insurance less expensive for 24 million Americans. Senate Republicans instead only agreed to offer Democrats a vote in December on whether to extend the subsidies – something they had already offered weeks ago. And House Speaker Mike Johnson would not commit on Monday to allowing a vote in his chamber on the tax credits.

This entails a fair degree of political risk for Republicans, however. If they torpedo the subsidies, health coverage premiums could rocket for millions of people, handing Democrats a ready-made campaign issue for next year's midterm elections.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, a conservative Republican congresswoman from Georgia, has broken ranks with President Donald Trump to warn that her party must ensure health insurance premiums do not spike.

How intense will House Democratic opposition be?

Out of power in Washington, where Trump's Republicans control the House and Senate, Democrats appeared finally to have some political wind in their sails after a handful of election wins last week in Virginia, New Jersey, and New York City. But those victories, like the shutdown fight, have accentuated strategic tensions between the pragmatic and progressive factions of the party.

The Democratic left is furious at defectors who voted with Senate Republicans to pass the budget on Monday, seeing this as a capitulation to Trump.

Do Republicans have the votes?

Republicans control the House, holding 219 seats against the Democrats' 213, but can only afford to lose two votes to pass the spending plan. While most House Republicans are expected to support the funding package, given that Trump backs it, fiscal hawks in the party will raise objections.

Will travel chaos delay the return to Washington?

House Speaker Mike Johnson has kept the chamber out of session for the last seven weeks to focus pressure on Senate Democrats to make a shutdown deal. Now he is urging lawmakers to start returning immediately to Washington with a vote set for Wednesday afternoon at the earliest. However, members of Congress face the same flight delays that have plagued other Americans during the spending impasse, with record-cold temperatures and heavy snow complicating travel plans.