STORY: U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday (November 12) signed legislation ending the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, roughly two hours after the House of Representatives voted to restart disrupted food assistance, pay hundreds of thousands of federal workers and revive a hobbled air-traffic control system.

The Republican-controlled chamber passed the package by a vote of 222-209, with Trump's support largely keeping his party together in the face of vehement opposition from House Democrats, who are angry that a long standoff launched by their Senate colleagues failed to secure a deal to extend federal health insurance subsidies.

"For the past 43 days, Democrats in Congress shut down the government of the United States," Trump said before putting pen to paper, accusing his opponents of attempting "to extort American taxpayers".

Trump's signature on the bill, which cleared the Senate earlier in the week, will bring federal workers idled by the 43-day shutdown back to their jobs starting as early as Thursday (November 13), although just how quickly full government services and operations will resume is unclear.

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VIDEO SHOWS: U.S. PRESIDENT, DONALD TRUMP, SIGNING BILL TO END GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN / SOUNDBITES FROM TRUMP

RESENDING WITH COMPLETE SCRIPT

SHOWS: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (NOVEMBER 12, 2025) (UNRESTRICTED POOL - Access all)

1. U.S. PRESIDENT, DONALD TRUMP, SPEAKING DURING SIGNING CEREMONY

2. (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT, DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:

“For the past 43 days, Democrats in Congress shut down the government of the United States in an attempt to extort American taxpayers for hundreds of billions of dollars for illegal aliens and people that came into our country illegally from gangs, from prisons, from mental institutions. They wanted to pay them $1.5 trillion, which would have really hurt our healthcare businesses and our recipients at levels never seen before. Today, we're sending a clear message that we will never give in to extortion because that's what it was.”

3. TRUMP SPEAKING

4. (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT, DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:

“This cost the country $1.5 trillion, this little excursion that they took us on. Republicans never wanted a shutdown and voted 15 times for a clean continuation of funding. And there's never been a time when one or the other party ever didn't sign a continuation. It’s just a continuation, not a big deal. That's a continuation, and we'll talk later.”

5. U.S. HOUSE SPEAKER, MIKE JOHNSON, LISTENING TO TRUMP

6. (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT, DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:

“Over the past seven weeks, the Democrats shutdown has inflicted massive harm. They caused 20,000 flights to be cancelled or delayed. They departed so many times, so, so late. People are hurt so badly. Nobody's ever seen anything like this one. This was a no-brainer. This was an easy extension, but they didn't want to do it the easy way. They had to do it the hard way. And they look very bad, the Democrats do. They deprived more than 1 million government workers from their paychecks and cut off food stamp benefits for millions and millions more Americans in need. They caused tens of thousands of federal contractors and small businesses to go unpaid. And the total effect of the damage here and its cost will take weeks and probably months to really calculate accurately, including the serious harm that they did to our economy and to people and to families. So I just want to tell the American people, you should not forget this when we come up to midterms and other things, don't forget what they've done to our country.”

7. TRUMP SPEAKING

8. (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT, DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:

“So with my signature, the federal government will now resume normal operations. And my administration and our partners in Congress will continue our work to lower the cost of living, restore public safety, grow our economy, and make America affordable again for all Americans again.”

9. TRUMP SPEAKING

10. (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT, DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:

“And I'm calling today for insurance companies not to be paid, but for the money, this massive amount of money to be paid directly to the people of our country so that they can buy their own healthcare, which will be far better and far less expensive than the disaster known as Obamacare. And I've had, I think, great support. I've even had Democrat support.”

11. TRUMP SPEAKING

12. (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT, DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:

“And it's an honour now to sign this incredible bill and get our country working again. Thank you.“ / TRUMP SIGNING BILL, TRUMP DISPLAYING SIGNED BILL

13. REPORTER ASKING TRUMP ABOUT EPSTEIN FILES