The US Senate took the first step to end the longest shutdown in history on Sunday night, after a group of Democratic lawmakers crossed party lines and endorsed a compromise plan to reopen the government.

Eight Democrats voted along with all but one Republican senator to advance a deal, which was negotiated behind closed doors by rank-and-file Democrats, Republican senators and the White House. The final vote was 60-40 in favour of advancing the agreement.

A deal would reopen the federal government and keep it funded until the end of January. It would also reverse the lay-offs initiated by the White House during the shutdown and guarantee that furloughed workers receive back pay, while including a concession by Democrats on healthcare tax credits that have been a key sticking point in the funding stand-off.

After Sunday’s procedural vote, the deal will now need to be debated and passed by the Senate and signed off by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives before the shutdown can end.

US President Donald Trump appeared confident late on Sunday, the 40th day of the shutdown. “It looks like we are getting close to the shutdown ending,” he told reporters. “You’ll know very soon.”

The Senate vote was a breakthrough in a shutdown that has dragged on for nearly six weeks, rattling the federal workforce, bringing many public services to a halt and jeopardising welfare benefits for tens of millions of Americans.

Tim Kaine, Democratic senator for Virginia and one of the eight to side with Republicans, said a possible deal would “protect federal workers from baseless firings, reinstate those who have been wrongfully terminated during the shutdown, and ensure federal workers receive back pay”.

However, the vote exposed deep divisions among Democrats as many lawmakers accused fellow party members of caving in to Republican demands.

Chuck Schumer, the Democratic minority leader in the Senate, voted against the deal, while Hakeem Jeffries, his counterpart in the House, said he would also oppose it.

The agreement included a concession by Democrats on healthcare tax credits, which are due to expire at the end of the year and which the Democratic party has insisted should be extended. Trump on Saturday poured cold water on the idea of an extension.

The deal struck on Sunday gives no guarantees on the future of the tax credits but only offers an assurance that a vote will be held on the issue no later than mid-December.

“We will fight the GOP bill in the House of Representatives,” Jeffries said. “As a result of the Republican refusal to address the healthcare crisis that they have created, tens of millions of everyday Americans are going to see their costs skyrocket.”

Sunday’s vote came after top Trump administration officials warned that US air travel would slow to a “trickle” and economic growth could turn negative if the stalemate continued for much longer.

US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent said the economic impact of the shutdown would only get “worse and worse”.

US futures tracking the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 rose 0.7 per cent and 1.2 per cent respectively on Monday.

Yields on 10-year US Treasuries rose 0.04 percentage points to 4.14 per cent. Bond yields move inversely to prices. 

The government shut down on October 1, after Republican and Democratic lawmakers failed to agree on a plan to fund the government for the new federal fiscal year.

Funds for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) lapsed on November 1 for the first time in more than 60 years, affecting 40mn-plus poorer Americans who rely on the benefits.

On Friday the Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates air travel in the US, ordered airlines to begin reducing flight numbers. More than 2,700 flights were cancelled in the US on Sunday, according to tracking website FlightAware, while more than 10,000 others were delayed.

Richard Yetsenga, chief economist and head of research at ANZ, said the shutdown had contributed to falling bond yields and a correction in gold prices. “If the shutdown’s over I would expect a reversion of some of those shifts.” 

Additional reporting by William Sandlund in Hong Kong

A minor, 3.8-magnitude earthquake struck in the San Francisco Bay Area on Sunday, according to the United States Geological Survey. It was one of several that struck in quick succession.

The temblor happened at 9:38 a.m. Pacific time about 2 miles southeast of San Ramon, Calif., data from the agency shows.

U.S.G.S. data earlier reported that the magnitude was 3.7.

As seismologists review available data, they may revise the earthquake’s reported magnitude. Additional information collected about the earthquake may also prompt U.S.G.S. scientists to update the shake-severity map.

Aftershocks can occur days, weeks or even years after the first earthquake. These events can be of equal or larger magnitude to the initial earthquake, and they can continue to affect already damaged locations.

A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration violated the First Amendment rights of Education Department employees when it replaced their personalized out-of-office e-mail notifications with partisan language blaming Democrats for the government shutdown.

“When government employees enter public service, they do not sign away their First Amendment rights,” U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper wrote in his decision on Friday, “and they certainly do not sign up to be a billboard for any given administration’s partisan views.”

The lawsuit was brought by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE).

“This ridiculous ploy by the Trump administration was a clear violation of the First Amendment rights of the workers at the Education Department,” said Rachel Gittleman, the president of AFGE Local 252, which represents many Education Department workers, in a statement. She added it is “one of the many ways the Department’s leadership has threatened, harassed and demoralized these hardworking public servants in the last 10 months.”

Cooper ordered the department to restore union members’ personalized out-of-office email notices immediately. If that could not be done, he warned, then the department would be required to remove the partisan language from all employees’ accounts, union member or not.

According to court records, in the run-up to the government shutdown, Education Department employees were told to create an out-of-office message for their government email accounts to be used while workers were furloughed. The department even gave employees boilerplate language they could adapt that simply said:

“We are unable to respond to your request due to a lapse in appropriations for the Department of Education. We will respond to your request when appropriations are enacted. Thank you.”

But, on the shutdown’s first day, the department’s deputy chief of staff for operations overrode staffers’ personal messages and replaced them with this partisan autoreply:

“Thank you for contacting me. On September 19, 2025, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 5371, a clean continuing resolution. Unfortunately, Democrat Senators are blocking passage of H.R. 5371 in the Senate which has led to a lapse in appropriations. Due to the lapse in appropriations I am currently in furlough status. I will respond to emails once government functions resume.”

While the message was written in the first person, multiple employees told NPR they did not write it and were not told it would replace the out-of-office messages they had written.

At the time, Madi Biedermann, deputy assistant secretary for communications, said in a statement to NPR: “The email reminds those who reach out to Department of Education employees that we cannot respond because Senate Democrats are refusing to vote for a clean CR and fund the government. Where’s the lie?”

In his decision, Cooper lambasted the department for “turning its own workforce into political spokespeople through their official email accounts. The Department may have added insult to injury, but it also overplayed its hand.”

The department did not respond to an NPR request to comment on the ruling.

“Nonpartisanship is the foundation of the federal civil-service system,” Cooper wrote, a principle that Congress enshrined in the Hatch Act.

That law, passed in 1939, was intended to protect public employees from political pressure and, according to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, “to ensure that federal programs are administered in a nonpartisan fashion.”