By Ben Mause
November 10, 2025
The U.S. Senate passed a bill to reopen the government on Monday. Both Maryland senators opposed it.
WASHINGTON — Maryland’s senators voted against the bipartisan deal to reopen the government on Monday night, joining a majority of Senate Democrats who remain opposed to opening the government before addressing the expiring Affordable Care Act premium tax credits.
The funding package passed 60 to 40, with seven Democrats and one Independent in favor. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was the only Republican to oppose it.
Both Maryland senators announced their opposition before the vote.
“I am prepared to work toward a compromise, but this funding bill before us tonight does not come close to meeting those terms,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen announced on Sunday night, when the deal was first being considered. “Not only does it fail to address the impending explosion in working Americans’ health insurance costs, it also lacks the necessary guardrails to stop President Trump from ignoring the law and withholding funds for important priorities.”
Sen. Angela Alsobrooks made a similar statement.
“As I look at this new [continuing resolution], I am glad to see it includes language I fought for to reverse the draconian [reductions in force],” Alsobrooks said. “But, I have maintained from the beginning of this Republican shutdown that I could not vote for anything that does not address the rising health care costs.”
A group of eight Democratic senators struck a deal with Republicans on Sunday to reopen the government. In exchange for their support, Republicans included language that reverses the mass firing of employees that happened during the shutdown and prevents more firings through Jan. 30, 2026, while promising to hold a vote on expiring Obamacare tax credits in December.
The Senate voted to pass a continuing resolution that will fund the government through Jan. 30. It was packaged with three-year-long appropriations bills — funding Congress and the Departments of Agriculture and Veterans Affairs.
While the deal came together on Sunday, procedural actions held up its final passage until late Monday night.
Three Democrats had voted with their Republican colleagues for over a month to reopen the government. But it wasn’t until late last week that negotiations gained traction to break the longest funding stalemate in American history.
With extensive airline disruptions starting, and continued concerns about federal employees going without pay, five additional Democrats decided: It was time.
“It wasn’t going to happen,” Sen. Angus King, a Maine Independent who caucuses with the Democrats, said during a news conference on Sunday of the Republicans’ capitulating.
The party’s lengthy fight focused on rising health care costs. They wanted an extension of the Obamacare tax credits included in the funding bills. They waited over a month for Republicans to cave.
“This was the only deal on the table,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat, said during the news conference. “It was our best chance to reopen the government and immediately begin negotiations to extend the ACA tax credits that tens of millions of Americans rely on to keep costs down.”
“Waiting another week — or another month — wouldn’t deliver a better outcome,” Shaheen added.
But Van Hollen and Alsobrooks, along with the rest of their party, were unmoved. The Maryland lawmakers criticized the deal as Republican indifference, despite it being brokered with fellow Democrats.
“After weeks of refusing to negotiate, Senate Republicans have finally put forth a new CR that reaffirms their indifference to the health care crisis and growing unaffordability of our country,” Alsobrooks said in her statement.
The funding package still has to be considered by the House, then signed by the president. The lower chamber could vote on it on Wednesday.