备受争议的参议院停摆协议带有浓厚的新英格兰风味
【中美创新时报2025年11月11日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）参议院周一晚以60票赞成、40票反对的投票结果通过了结束政府停摆的法案。该法案现在还需众议院通过并由特朗普总统签署生效，预计将在未来几天内完成。《波士顿环球报》记者吉姆·普赞格拉对此作了下述详细报道。
周日，新罕布什尔州民主党参议员珍妮·沙欣与内华达州参议员凯瑟琳·科尔特斯·马斯托、新罕布什尔州参议员玛吉·哈桑、缅因州参议员安格斯·金和弗吉尼亚州参议员蒂姆·凯恩一起在国会山举行新闻发布会，解释他们为何与共和党人一起投票推进结束政府停摆的立法。
在成为参议员之前，安格斯·金、珍妮·沙欣和玛吉·哈桑都曾是新英格兰的州长，他们习惯于妥协和交易的艺术。
最近几天，他们运用了这些经验，协助谈判达成了一项颇具争议的协议，结束了联邦政府创纪录的停摆。这三人与其他五名参议院民主党人一起，与参议院多数党领袖约翰·图恩达成协议，并提供了推进重启政府法案所需的关键票数。
参议院周一晚以60票赞成、40票反对的投票结果通过了这项法案。该法案现在还需众议院通过并由特朗普总统签署生效，预计将在未来几天内完成。
这八位参议员与大多数党内同僚意见相左，接受了这项协议。该协议未能满足民主党延长《平价医疗法案》医疗保险费补贴的要求，这些补贴将于年底到期。来自南达科他州的共和党参议员图恩仅承诺下个月将就一项尚未起草的民主党法案进行投票，该法案旨在延长这些补贴。
多年来一直致力于延长补贴的沙欣和其他参议院民主党人仍需进行更多谈判。他们至少需要找到13名参议院共和党人支持延长补贴的法案。
而这仅仅是医改方案面临的第一个障碍。共和党籍众议院议长迈克·约翰逊甚至还没有承诺就这项法案进行投票，而这项法案也需要众议院共和党人的支持。
由于未能争取到延长医疗保健补贴以换取政府重新开放，这八位参议员遭到了民主党基层选民的强烈批评。自周日宣布取得突破性进展以来，“错误”、“投降”、“可悲”和“背叛”等词语便如雨后春笋般涌现。
但参议员们为他们达成的协议辩护。
哈桑是新罕布什尔州的民主党人，曾于 2013 年至 2017 年担任该州州长。他表示，该协议包含几项关键条款，包括重新雇用自 10 月 1 日政府停摆开始以来被解雇的联邦雇员（并补发工资）， 以及恢复特朗普政府自 11 月 1 日以来一直扣留的联邦食品援助资金一年。
随着政府停摆持续，选民们面临的困境日益加剧，这促使哈桑最终签署了这项协议。她表示，这 是一项必要的妥协，因为国会共和党人和特朗普在政府停摆期间拒绝就补贴问题进行谈判，而美国民众正遭受着越来越大的影响。
数周以来，共和党人一直在推动一项简单的法案，为政府提供资金直至 11 月 21 日。但新的 协议涉及将联邦资金延长一整年，用于包括退伍军人事务部在内的一些机构，并将政府其他部门的资金延长至 1 月 30 日。
“我认为新罕布什尔州的人民，乃至每个州的人民，无论该州是红州、蓝州还是摇摆州，都真心希望政府正常运转，”哈桑告诉《环球报》。“我们需要确保一切运转正常。我担任州长的经历让我明白，事情在基层是如何运作的，华盛顿的所作所为，以及它对我的选民产生的直接影响。”
她的新罕布什尔州同事沙欣（Shaheen）曾于 1997 年至 2003 年担任该州州长，自政府停摆开始之前，她就一直在进行秘密的两党会谈，试图延长补贴。
数周以来，讨论一直未能取得进展，因为参议院民主党党团只有三名成员——缅因州的金、宾夕法尼亚州的约翰·费特曼和内华达州的凯瑟琳·科尔特斯·马斯托——多次投票 支持推进共和党的短期支出法案。
尽管共和党在参议院占据多数席位，但他们需要八名民主党人的支持才能克服程序障碍，推动政府重新开放的立法。
但上周，随着特朗普政府利用政府停摆停止向数百万低收入美国人发放联邦补充营养援助计划福利，以及交通部长肖恩·达菲因空中交通管制员未获得工资而下令减少 40 个繁忙机场的航班，压力进一步加大。
对这些政策的影响的担忧，以及看不到延长医疗保健保费补贴的出路，都为达成交易注入了动力。
另一位前州长，弗吉尼亚州民主党参议员蒂姆·凯恩，在上周该州州长竞选结束后，于周五加入了谈判，将注意力转移到了谈判上。
“我加入这个团体是为了确保我们能够为联邦雇员争取到重要的保护，”凯恩周日告诉记者，并指出他所在的州大约有 32 万名联邦雇员。
他成功地促使图恩同意 保护这些工人，其中包括保证至少在 1 月 30 日之前不会再进行联邦裁员。
伊利诺伊州民主党参议员迪克·德宾表示，增加联邦工人保护措施和一整年的 SNAP 资金促使他签署了这项协议。
延长《平价医疗法案》的税收补贴是八位参议员的共同优先事项，但图恩却犹豫不决，令他们别无选择。参议员们只能争取到下个月投票的承诺，现在他们 必须制定一项能够获得足够共和党人支持、从而在参众两院获得通过的法案。
这是一项艰巨的任务，金认为成功的几率不会超过50%。但他表示，这比达成协议前他认为的零成功率要好得多，因为共和党人毫不让步。
“一位优秀的将军，如果作战计划行不通，就会改变作战计划……尤其是在部队面临危险的情况下，”曾于1995年至2003年担任缅因州州长的金周一在CNN上说道。“而我们现在所说的，正是为了一个行不通且毫无希望的战略，而将美国人民置于危险之中。”
德宾是参议院民主党领导层中唯一 同意这项协议并投票支持推进该法案的成员。参议院少数党领袖、纽约州民主党人查克·舒默公开反对这项法案。
“我的很多朋友都不高兴。他们认为我们应该无限期地关闭政府，以抗议特朗普政府的政策，”德宾周一在参议院发言时说。“我和他们一样对本届政府不满，但我不能接受这种以牺牲邻居的工资或孩子的温饱为代价来打政治仗的策略。”
包括内华达州民主党参议员杰基·罗森在内的八位参议员 明年均无需竞选连任。德宾和沙欣今年早些时候已宣布不再参选。批评这项协议的人士中包括沙欣的女儿斯蒂芬妮·沙欣，她正在竞选新罕布什尔州一个空缺的国会众议员席位。
“改善医疗保健是我毕生的事业，也是我竞选国会议员的原因，”斯蒂芬妮·沙欣周一在X电视台表示。“因此，当约翰逊议长甚至拒绝就延长医疗保健税收抵免进行投票时，我无法支持这项协议。”
一些 参议院共和党人表示，他们有兴趣找到延长补贴的方法。
“我当然希望并期待两党能够共同努力，制定出一项能够获得通过的法案，确保那些需要税收抵免补贴的人……不会面临无力承担医疗保险的困境，”缅因州共和党参议员苏珊·柯林斯周一告诉记者。但柯林斯表示，她希望看到对资格设定一些收入限制。
Jeanne Shaheen表示，结束停摆的协议最终为进行此类谈判打开了大门，以防止明年保费大幅上涨。
她在给《波士顿环球报》的一份声明中表示：“美国民众期望并理应拥有能够跨越党派界限共同解决问题的民选代表。这项协议结束了政府停摆，保障了联邦雇员未来的权益，并确保了延长《平价医疗法案》增强型保费税收抵免的投票，数千万人的医疗保险都依赖于这项抵免。”
哈桑指出，距离图恩承诺的12月中旬参议院投票还有一段时间，时间紧迫。
“我们现在时间非常紧迫，必须给共和党人施加压力，”她说。“所有美国人都需要坚持斗争，确保我们达成协议，延长这些减税政策。如果我们做不到，共和党人将受到美国人民的追究。”
题图：新罕布什尔州民主党参议员珍妮·沙欣（中）周日在国会山举行的新闻发布会上发表讲话，解释了他们为何与共和党人一起投票支持结束政府停摆的法案。出席发布会的还有内华达州参议员凯瑟琳·科尔特斯·马斯托（左一）、新罕布什尔州参议员玛吉·哈桑、缅因州参议员安格斯·金和弗吉尼亚州参议员蒂姆·凯恩。图片来源：TIERNEY L. CROSS/NYT
附原英文报道：
The controversial Senate shutdown deal came with a New England flavor
By Jim Puzzanghera Globe Staff,Updated November 11, 2025, 7:14 a.m.
Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat (center), was joined by fellow senators (from left) Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Angus King of Maine, and Tim Kaine of Virginia, as she spoke at a news conference on Capitol Hill on Sunday to explain why they voted with Republicans to advance legislation to end the government shutdown.TIERNEY L. CROSS/NYT
WASHINGTON — Before they became senators, Angus King, Jeanne Shaheen, and Maggie Hassan all were New England governors used to the art of compromise and dealmaking.
They put that experience to the test in recent days, helping negotiate a controversial deal to end the record-long federal government shutdown. The three, along with five other Senate Democrats, struck an agreement with Senate majority leader John Thune and then provided the pivotal votes needed to advance legislation to reopen the government.
The Senate voted 60-40 to approve the bill Monday night. The legislation now must be passed by the House and signed by President Trump, which is expected to happen in the next couple of days.
The eight senators broke ranks with most of their party colleagues in accepting the deal, which falls short of Democratic demands to extend Affordable Care Act health insurance premium subsidies that expire at the end of the year. Thune, a South Dakota Republican, only promised to allow a vote next month on a still-to-be-drafted Democratic bill to extend the subsidies.
Shaheen, who has been working to extend the subsidies for years, and other Senate Democrats still have more deal-making to do. They’ll have to find at least 13 Senate Republicans to go along with legislation to extend the subsidies.
And that’s just the first hurdle on health care. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson hasn’t even committed to a vote on such a bill, which will need GOP support in that chamber as well.
The failure to secure an extension of health care subsidies in exchange for helping reopen the government led to intense criticism of those eight senators from the Democratic Party’s base. Words like “mistake,” “capitulation,” “pathetic,” and “betrayal” have been thrown in their direction since the breakthrough was announced Sunday.
But the senators defended their deal.
Hassan, a New Hampshire Democrat who was the state’s governor from 2013-17, said it includes several key provisions, including the rehiring of federal workers fired since the shutdown began on Oct. 1 (with back pay) and one-year of funding for federal food assistance that the Trump administration has been withholding since Nov. 1.
The increasing pain faced by her constituents as the shutdown dragged on helped push Hassan to sign on to the deal. She said it was a necessary compromise because congressional Republicans and Trump were refusing to negotiate on the subsidies during the shutdown and Americans increasingly were suffering.
For weeks, Republicans had been pushing a simple bill to fund the government through Nov. 21. But the new agreement involves extending federal funding for a full year for some agencies, including the Veterans Affairs Department, and for the rest of the government until Jan. 30.
“People in New Hampshire, I think people in every state, whether it’s red, blue or purple, really want government to function,” Hassan told the Globe. “We need to make sure that things work. My experience as governor has meant that I understand how things play out on the ground and when Washington does or doesn’t do something, how it impacts my constituents in a very direct way.”
Her New Hampshire colleague, Shaheen, who was the state’s governor from 1997-2003, had been holding back-channel bipartisan talks since before the shutdown began to try to extend the subsidies.
For weeks, the discussions failed to gain traction as only three members of the Senate Democratic caucus — King, of Maine, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada— voted multiple times to advance the short-term Republican spending bill.
Although Republicans have the Senate majority, they needed eight Democrats to advance legislation opening the government over a procedural hurdle.
But pressure ramped up last week as the Trump administration used the shutdown to halt federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits for millions of low-income Americans and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy ordered flight reductions at 40 high-volume airports because of absences by air traffic controllers who were not getting paid.
Concerns about the impact of those policies, as well as the inability to see a path forward on extending the health care premium subsidies, added momentum to the deal-making.
Another former governor, Virginia Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, joined the negotiations on Friday as he shifted his focus after the state’s gubernatorial race last week.
“I joined this group to make sure that we could get important protections for federal employees,” Kaine told reporters Sunday, noting his state has about 320,000 federal workers.
He successfully pushed to get Thune to agree to the protections for those workers, including a guarantee of no additional federal layoffs at least through Jan. 30.
Senator Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, said the addition of the federal worker protections and a full year of SNAP funding persuaded him to sign on to the deal.
Extending the Affordable Care Act tax subsidies is a priority for all eight senators but Thune balked, leaving them with few options. Only able to secure a promise of a vote next month, the senators now must craft a bill that will get enough Republican support to pass the Senate and the House.
It’s a tall task and King put the odds of success at no higher than 50 percent. But he said that’s better than what he considered a zero percent chance before the deal because the Republicans were not budging.
“A good general, if the battle plan isn’t working, you change the battle plan … especially if what’s happening is danger to your troops,” King, Maine’s governor from 1995-2003, said on CNN Monday. “And that’s what we’re talking about is danger to the American people in the service of a strategy that isn’t working and has no prospects of working.”
Durbin was the only member of the Senate Democratic leadership to agree to the deal and to vote to advance the legislation. Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, publicly opposed it.
“Many of my friends are unhappy. They think we should have kept our government closed indefinitely to protest the policies of the Trump administration,” Durbin said on the Senate floor Monday. “I share their opinions of this administration but cannot accept a strategy which wages political battle at the expense of my neighbor’s paycheck or the food for his children.”
None of the eight senators, which also included Nevada Democrat Jacky Rosen, are up for reelection next year. Durbin and Shaheen announced earlier this year they would not run again. Among the critics of the deal was Shaheen’s daughter, Stefany Shaheen, who is running for an open New Hampshire congressional seat.
“Improving health care has been the cause of my life. It’s why I am running for Congress,” Stefany Shaheen said on X Monday. “So I cannot support this deal when Speaker Johnson refuses to even allow a vote to extend health care tax credits.”
Some Senate Republicans have said that they’re interested in finding a way to extend the subsidies.
“I certainly hope and anticipate that there will be a bipartisan effort to come up with a bill that can pass that will ensure that those who need the subsidized tax credit … will not face the prospect of unaffordable health insurance,” Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican told reporters Monday. But Collins said she would like to see some income limits on eligibility.
Jeanne Shaheen said the deal to end the shutdown finally opens the door to having those kind of talks to prevent huge premium increases next year.
“Americans expect and deserve elected representatives who can work across the aisle to solve problems,” she said in a statement to the Globe. “This deal ends the government shutdown, protects federal workers going forward and guarantees a vote to extend the ACA enhanced premium tax credits that tens of millions of people rely on for coverage.”
Hassan noted the clock is ticking ahead of the mid-December Senate vote Thune promised.
“We have a very narrow window of time now to put the Republicans feet to the fire,” she said. “All Americans need to stay in this fight to make sure that we get an agreement to extend these tax cuts. If we don’t, then the Republicans will be held accountable by the American people.”
