I wrote to express my dismay that Sen. Durbin voted to reopen the government. This is his response. I don’t agree but I appreciate his response.

On Thu, Nov 20, 2025, 12:24 PM Senator Richard J. Durbin <correspondence_reply> wrote:

November 20, 2025 Dr. Barbara Iverson 5600 South Blackstone Avenue 5600 S Blackstone Ave Chicago, IL 60637-1851 Dear Dr. Iverson: Thank you for contacting me about the longest government shutdown in United States history and the Continuing Appropriations, Agriculture, Legislative Branch, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and Extensions Act, 2026 (P.L. 119-37). I appreciate hearing from you. After a record-long government shutdown and 14 Senate roll-call votes failing to reopen it, the situation was clear—President Donald Trump and Senate Republican Leadership were unwilling to do anything to reduce skyrocketing health insurance premiums, a terrible problem facing 24 million American families. The 43-day government shutdown stopped paychecks for hundreds of thousands of federal workers, causing real hardships for their families, including our underworked and overstaffed air traffic controllers, and other critical members of the federal workforce. President Trump stopped Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) payments to 42 million Americans, one-third of whom were children. Food pantries in Illinois and across the nation were overwhelmed by SNAP recipients and workers who had been laid off and furloughed because of the government shutdown. So, a group of Senators sat down to try to come to a bipartisan agreement to end the shutdown. After lengthy negotiations, a resolution was reached. We agreed to fund the government until January 30, 2026, and we passed three bipartisan appropriations bills that fully fund SNAP; the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children; and all veterans programs through the end of Fiscal Year 2026. +++ The agreement also reverses the Trump Administration’s mass firings of federal employees during the shutdown and prevents future reductions in force through January 30, 2026. Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota also promised Senate Democrats the opportunity to present a bill on the Senate Floor before mid-December to protect American families from dramatic health care premium increases. I have served in the Senate for 29 years, and I have never seen that kind of offer from a Senate majority. It is my fervent hope that this becomes a bipartisan effort. It would be such an achievement for the Senate. During the roll-call vote on the continuing resolution, I spoke to Senator Thune and told him that I was counting on him to keep his word on this agreement. He assured me he would. Many of my friends are unhappy and think we should have kept our government closed indefinitely to oppose the policies of the Trump Administration. I share their opinions of this administration, but I cannot accept a strategy that wages a political battle at the expense of my neighbors’ paychecks or food for their children. Thank you again for contacting me. Please feel free to keep in touch.
	Sincerely, Richard J. Durbin United States Senator
RJD/oy