The two U.S. House lawmakers who represent parts of Bloomington-Normal split on the funding bill that ended the six-week long government shutdown.
The House voted 222 to 209 mostly along party lines to fund the government. President Trump signed the bill into law Wednesday night.
Republican Darin LaHood backed the bill, calling the shutdown reckless and grossly irresponsible.
“Over the last 42 days, our families have faced uncertainty, workers have gone unpaid, and our economy has been damaged all because Democrats wanted to use Americans' suffering as political leverage,” LaHood said in a statement.
Democrat Eric Sorensen voted against the measure, along with a majority of Democrats who opposed the bill over concerns about the end of health care subsidies. But a group of Democrats joined Republicans to support the bill over a promise for a vote on those subsidies next month.
“Congressional Republicans … were yanking money from the pockets of people trying to feed their families, forcing people to work without pay, and firing many more. I cannot in good faith support a funding bill that doesn’t make the lives of my neighbors more affordable as they struggle with the high cost of Trump’s tariffs,” Sorensen said.
The funding bill passed in the U.S. Senate on Monday.
Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Senate Democratic whip who is retiring next year, was one of eight Democrats in the Senate who helped broker a deal with Republicans to end the impasse after the Trump administration cut food assistance benefits a month into the shutdown.
