WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama signed into law a bipartisan deal approved by Congress Wednesday to reopen the federal government and avert an unprecedented debt default, ending a bitter and partisan 16-day impasse.
The Senate voted 81-18; The House voted 285-144. Only Republicans opposed the deal in each chamber.
Both chambers then adjourned for the rest of the week.
House GOP leaders accepted the Senate deal to end the partial shutdown and avert a Thursday deadline to raise the nation's $16.7 trillion debt ceiling, that risked the nation's economic standing.
"The compromise we reached will provide our economy with the stability it desperately needs," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who negotiated the agreement with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
"This has been a long, challenging few weeks for Congress and for the country. It is my hope that today we can put some of those most urgent issues behind us," McConnell said.
The Office of Management and Budget Director Sylvia M. Burwell sent out a memorandum announcing all federal workers who had been furloughed were to return to work Thursday.
"This has been a particularly challenging time for Federal employees and I want to thank our Nation's dedicated civil servants for their continued commitment to serving the American people," Burwell said in a statement.
After the Senate vote, President Obama made a brief statement praising leaders of both parties for accepting the deal. "My hope and expectation is everybody has learned that there is no reason why we can't work on the issues at hand, why we can't disagree between the parties while still being agreeable, and make sure that we're not inflicting harm on the American people when we do have disagreements," Obama said.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, who led the unsuccessful GOP effort to dismantle the president's healthcare law in the fight, announced early Wednesday that he would not block the Senate deal and he urged GOP lawmakers to support it.
"The House has fought with everything it has" in the latest budget fight, he said, but he would not allow the risk of default to occur. Boehner said Republicans were committed to keeping up their fight to rein in the Affordable Care Act but would use "smart, targeted strikes" and aggressive oversight in the future. "Our drive to stop the train wreck that is the president's health care law will continue." Republicans remain opposed to new taxes, he added.
Republicans initially had demanded delaying or defunding President Obama's signature health care law before they would agree to raise the debt ceiling or fund the government, but those demands faded over several weeks. The final deal does not include any significant revisions of the Affordable Care Act.