Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell walks from a vote Monday after the Senate voted to advance a bill financing the government. | Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images Congress votes to end shutdown And President Trump signed the legislation.

In a dramatic turnaround, Senate Democrats voted to reopen the government on Monday after receiving a commitment from Republicans to hold a vote on immigration legislation — paving the way to end the three-day shutdown.

The Senate voted 81-18 to move forward on a bill to fund the government through Feb. 8 after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) agreed to end the shutdown and continue to negotiate on immigration and spending matters. If a broader deal is not reached by Feb. 8, the Senate would take up legislation to protect hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants who are losing legal protections, as long as the government remains open.


Later Monday, the stop-gap spending bill passed the Senate 81-18 and was sent to the House for final passage, where it sailed through on a 266-150 vote. President Donald Trump subsequently signed the bill.

"The process will be neutral and fair to all sides," Schumer said of the immigration commitment from McConnell. "We expect that a bipartisan bill on [the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program] will receive fair consideration and an up-or-down vote on the floor."

Democrats had been deeply skeptical of McConnell’s commitment, but indicated after a party strategizing session late Monday morning that they’re willing to trust the majority leader.

“I’m encouraged by commitments Leader McConnell has made,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) said, emerging from the meeting. “I’m looking forward to the vote and I think it will be important that we take a step forward.”

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Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) said that Democratic leaders faced a “practical question ... Are you going to achieve more by holding out?” or by accepting McConnell’s offer.

Coons and King were part of a group of at least two dozen senators who began meeting late last week in the office of Sen. Susan Collins to broker a deal to stave off a shutdown — much like the effort that the Maine Republican led in 2013.

To try and keep the peace, Collins wouldn't let any senator in the room talk unless they were holding a "talking stick" — which one aide later said was a Maasai leadership stick that Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) gave Collins a few years ago. At one point, Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee forcefully tossed the stick toward Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia after Warner interrupted him, nearly shattering a glass elephant belonging to Collins, according to two people briefed on the throw. After that incident, Collins suggested using a small rubber ball, and Alexander also brought his own basketball "because it’d be safer than a stick," an aide said.

The insistence by Democrats that they came out ahead weren't enough to tamp down furor from their liberal base. And Republicans were gleeful that Democratic senators had caved without any substantive wins.

Trump said in a statement after the noontime Senate vote that he was "pleased that Democrats in Congress have come to their senses." Democrats pushed back, saying they extracted a promise from McConnell to take up immigration on the Senate floor that they would not have secured without the showdown.

"This is the first time in history that under Republican control, that we’re gonna take up this issue on the floor," Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii). "The only other time we’ve taken up immigration is under Democratic leadership. So there’s no way Leader McConnell would’ve done this had we not stood firm."

Earlier, McConnell had stressed that the Senate wouldn't move on immigration bills until the government was operating again. A group of Democrats huddled with McConnell on the Senate floor after his remarks.

Democrats, feeling burned about the House neglecting the Senate’s immigration bill in 2013, had wanted a more ironclad commitment from GOP leaders to take up a legislative fix to DACA, which has given legal protections to hundreds of thousands of young immigrants.

But McConnell's mere promise for a DACA vote ultimately was enough to persuade most Democrats to get on board.

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) defended McConnell as a "trustworthy, honorable person" and said Democrats should take the Kentucky Republican at his word.

"I realize there's a trust deficit up here generally, but I think one of the first steps to regaining that trust is for the leader to make that commitment and follow through on it," Cornyn said, adding that McConnell's oral pledge to Democrats is "all they're gonna get."

Later Monday, Cornyn quietly went to the White House with a handful of other GOP senators — Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, David Perdue of Georgia, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, and James Lankford of Oklahoma — to tell Trump "some thoughts on what could get bipartisan support" in the Senate on immigration. Moderate Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Doug Jones of Alabama went to the White House for their own meeting on immigration later Monday afternoon.

Before the vote Monday, much of the Senate was in a blur.

A group of Democrats who consult regularly with Schumer — including Coons, Sens. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Bill Nelson of Florida, Dick Durbin of Illinois and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan — filed into Schumer’s office before the Senate opened, trying to make sense of the last 24 hours.

“There’s been a lot of positive progress made,” Stabenow said. “No one wants to shut down the government.”

Added Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), who wanted commitments from McConnell to work on community health centers: “I believe a man’s word is his bond, so I’m going to take McConnell the same way.” Still, Tester ultimately voted against the stop-gap measure.

The short-term spending bill also includes a six-year funding renewal of a popular children’s health insurance program.

Top lawmakers had started to fear the two parties would become so entrenched in their positions that the shutdown could have dragged on for days.

“If not today, then I’m not sure,” said a senior House Republican.

GOP leaders in both Congress and the White House said they wanted nothing to do with immigration negotiations as long as the federal government’s doors are closed.

“The Democrats are turning down services and security for citizens in favor of services and security for non-citizens. Not good!” President Donald Trump tweeted Monday morning. “Democrats have shut down our government in the interests of their far left base. They don’t want to do it but are powerless!”

Despite the deal's broad support in the Senate, Democrats in the House had little interest in backing it — primarily because they don't believe Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) would bring up a Senate-passed immigration bill in their chamber.

Both House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) announced at a leadership meeting plans to vote against the short-term bill. But Democratic leaders didn't officially whipped their members against it.

Heather Caygle, John Bresnahan, Rebecca Morin and Cristiano Lima contributed to this report.

