The Senate took a massive step forward on its way to reopening the government on Sunday, with a group of Senate Democrats caving and joining Republicans in their bid to pass a revamped plan to end the shutdown.

Signs that the shutdown, which entered its 40th day, could be ending became more and more clear as the day went on, particularly with the unveiling of a bipartisan package of spending bills that lawmakers hope to attach to a modified bill to reopen the government.

Eight Senate Democrats crossed the aisle to mark the first step in the GOP’s quest to end the shutdown. Many of the lawmakers that splintered from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., were among those engaged in bipartisan talks over the last several weeks.

Among the defectors were Sens. Angus King, I-Maine, John Fetterman, D-Pa., Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., Jacky Rosen, D-N.M., Tim Kaine, D-Va., and the number two Democrat in the Senate, Dick Durbin, D-Ill.

‘The question was, does the shutdown further the goal of achieving some needed support for the extension of the tax credits? Our judgment was that it will not,’ King said. ‘It would not produce that result. And the evidence for that is almost seven weeks of fruitless attempts to make that happen.’

Schumer and Senate Democrats long stayed the course that they would only vote to reopen the government in exchange for a solid deal on extending expiring Obamacare subsidies.

But the solution developed over the last several days included nothing of the sort. While there were some wins in the updated continuing resolution (CR), like reversals of some of the firings of furloughed workers undertaken by the Trump administration and guaranteeing back pay for furloughed workers, there was no guaranteed victory in sight on the Obamacare issue.

That means that Senate Democrats effectively caved with little to show for their healthcare push, save for the guarantee of a vote on the subsidies from Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., which was reflected in the updated CR. 

Schumer panned the compromise deal, and charged that when Republicans rejected Democrats’ own counter-proposal that would have extended the expiring subsidies for a year, ‘They showed that they are against any health care reform.’

‘This healthcare crisis is so severe, so urgent, so devastating for families back home that I cannot, in good faith, support this CR that fails to address the healthcare crisis,’ Schumer said. 

Thune was optimistic that the plan would work, and reiterated his promise of a vote on the expiring subsidies. However, whatever legislation is produced to address the Obamacare issue is likely to fail. 

‘Regardless, as I have said for weeks to my Democrat friends, I will schedule a vote on their proposal, and I’ve committed to having that vote no later than second week in December,’ he said. 

Progressives in the caucus were unhappy with the developments, too.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, charged that it would be a ‘horrific mistake’ for Democrats to cave now without an Obamacare deal.

‘If Democrats cave on this issue, what it will say to Donald Trump is that he has a green light to go forward toward authoritarianism,’ Sanders said. ‘And I think that would be a tragedy for this country.’

Still, there is a long way to go before the government officially reopens.

Sunday’s vote was the first in a series needed in the Senate to modify the original House-passed continuing resolution and combine it with the three-bill spending package and updated CR, which, if passed, would reopen the government until Jan. 30, 2026.

Lawmakers hope that if given the extra time, they could finish funding the government with spending bills rather than turning to another CR or colossal omnibus spending package, which crams all 12 government funding bills into one piece of legislation.

‘If we blow this window, we’re going to get stuck with a yearlong CR,’ Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., said.

And the shutdown won’t end in the Senate, given that the changes to the legislation will need to be greenlit by the House before making it to President Donald Trump’s desk.

Democrats could still extract pain through procedural hurdles unless there is unanimous agreement from all 100 senators to move forward with the remaining votes.

The Obamacare issue is still bubbling on both sides of the aisle, however. Senate Republicans slammed the state of healthcare throughout Saturday, particularly over how the subsidies funneled money to insurance companies.

Democrats still remained skeptical if their frustration, and desire to make changes to take on insurance companies, was legitimate.

‘The point, I think that’s really relevant here, is if they’re serious, and I really question whether that’s the case,’ Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) started reducing air traffic across 40 airports Friday due to air traffic controller staffing issues stemming from the government shutdown.

As the government shutdown has hit 40 days, more air traffic control workers have refused to come to work as they’re about to miss a second paycheck next week — prompting the FAA to make cuts to ensure no safety issues arise.

But these flight reductions will likely continue if the shutdown does — or worsen — and could impact thousands of flights daily, according to Marc Scribner, a senior transportation policy analyst at the libertarian Reason Foundation think tank.

‘This would affect thousands of flights per day, and tens of thousands of passengers potentially seeing their flights canceled — a major disruption,’ Scribner told Fox News Digital Thursday.

As of Sunday, there are now enough Senate Democrats willing to back a revamped plan to reopen the government. But if the shutdown doesn’t end, air travel disruptions are at risk. 

‘I don’t think we would expect, if the shutdown continues, for staffing levels to improve over what they are right now,’ Scribner said. ‘If anything, they will continue to deteriorate as controllers call out sick or perhaps even resign. So I would expect it would not get better as long as the shutdown continues.’

Scribner said that travelers shouldn’t be concerned that the reduction in flights would translate to a lapse in safety, but said they should be aware that their travel schedules will likely take a hit as a result.

‘They’re not going to allow unsafe flights. So whatever that means in terms of staffing capability and workflow, they are going to reduce the flights in order to maintain that very high level of safety that’s demanded of that,’ Scribner said. ‘Travelers shouldn’t be concerned about safety in this, but they should be concerned about their travel schedules, which are likely to be impacted.’

Richard Stern, director of the Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget at conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, also said he expects this reduction to continue until the shutdown ends. 

‘Unfortunately, I think it’s going to have to continue until the shutdown ends, because they’re running through resources that they don’t have until this funding again,’ Stern told Fox News Digital Thursday. 

Stern said the government has been entering into uncharted territory now with what minimum services the government is required to provide, despite the fact that funding has expired. 

‘No one really knows exactly what the next steps are after this,’ Stern said. 

No clarity has been provided regarding how long this reduction in flights is expected to continue. The Department of Transportation, which oversees the FAA, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

The FAA said Friday that air traffic will be cut by 10% in the coming days across 40 ‘high-volume’ markets, including those in major cities like Atlanta, Denver, Dallas, Orlando, Miami and San Francisco, according to a list of airports obtained by The Associated Press. Major metropolitan areas with several airports like New York and Chicago will have outages at multiple locations.

Reducing air traffic in response to the lapse in funding from the government shutdown is unprecedented, according to FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford.

‘I’m not aware in my 35-year history in the aviation market where we’ve had a situation where we’re taking these kinds of measures,’ Bedford said at a news conference Wednesday.

Air traffic controllers have been working without pay since the shutdown kicked off Oct. 1, and often are required to work six days a week in addition to mandatory overtime.

Bedford said that the decision to reduce air traffic was made in order to prevent a crisis from emerging, amid increased staffing pressures and voluntary safety reports from pilots suggesting that air traffic controllers were facing heightened levels of fatigue.

‘We’re not going to wait for a safety problem to truly manifest itself when the early indicators are telling us we can take action today to prevent things from deteriorating,’ Bedford said. ‘The system is extremely safe today and will be extremely safe tomorrow. If the pressures continue to build even after we take these measures, we’ll come back and take additional measures.’

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Let’s put politics aside, as if that were possible, and look at how the craziness of the last few days is affecting people.

A week ago, President Donald Trump announced that the 42 million Americans on the SNAP nutrition program would not be getting their benefits — this against the backdrop of a government shutdown that has now reached its 40th day.

This against the backdrop of millions of federal workers who have not been paid while the shutdown drags on — and many of whom live paycheck to paycheck.

This against the backdrop of Trump throwing a lavish, Great Gatsby-themed Mar-a-Lago bash where guests in formal wear watched opera and feasted on blue cheese mousse, sliced beef filet, seared scallops and Trump chocolate cake.

Meanwhile, a federal judge ordered the administration to resume SNAP benefits, which cost $8.5 billion a month, but the Supreme Court gave Trump time to appeal.

And when at least nine states said they would pay for SNAP benefits during the crisis, Trump ordered them to ‘immediately undo’ any effort to provide food stamps to lower-income families — or face financial penalties.

Let’s see: how does this make the president look?

I hate this word, but what are the optics of this determined effort to stop these benefits from reaching hungry families?

After all, when a wealthy donor pal, Timothy Mellon, a banking and railroad heir, offered $130 million to ensure that American troops get paid during the shutdown, Trump seized the opportunity.

After all, the Trump tax cut was tilted toward the wealthy.

After all, Trump has further cut capital gains taxes on home sales that will mostly benefit the affluent and wealthy, enabling many to pay zero, or a reduced rate, on these sales. If you are totally unaware of this, you probably don’t qualify.

After all — this may have been the weirdest thing — Trump said Obamacare is so terrible that he wants to send people $2,000 checks so they can buy their own insurance.

But, where would they buy it, if not from an insurance company? And what would they do if the stock market plunged? There’s a reason that privatization of health insurance has never gone anywhere.

So to come back to politics (inevitably), how does any of this help Trump?

I get the notion that he’s trying to boost the pain level so that Democrats will end the shutdown on his terms.

The Democrats, who have made soaring Obamacare premiums a central part of their pitch — and fear millions will lose coverage unless expiring subsidies are extended — have hung on longer than anyone expected.

For what it’s worth, both sides deserve a ton of blame for failing to keep the lights on during this endless blame game, rather than work out a compromise, which is what we pay them to do.

But don’t Trump and JD Vance, who called the judge’s order ‘absurd,’ look like they don’t particularly care if millions of families go hungry, or are taking food from dumpsters?

Seriously, is there an alternative explanation?

Blaming the other side is fine for the usual political fun and games. But doing it during this kind of self-inflicted crisis?

With the opposition throwing out charges of cruelty, is there some nine — dimensional chess level on which this helps Trump?

Trump says former President Joe Biden ‘went totally crazy’ and handed out food stamps to ‘anybody that would ask.’ So is this liberalism gone wild? I decided to do a little digging.

Turns out there are income limits, and those in the program must meet work requirements. What’s more, the oft-repeated charge that illegal immigrants are getting SNAP benefits is simply untrue, though there are exemptions for children and refugees. (Obviously, you can never completely rule out instances of fraud.)

During the pandemic, when unemployment soared, Congress passed an emergency measure that temporarily suspended a work requirement for adults without dependents who were capable of holding jobs. This happened under … President Trump, in his first term, in 2020.

Under a deal with Republicans in 2023, work requirements for SNAP were increased. That happened under … Biden. Some Republicans, meanwhile, said the measure didn’t go far enough.

By the way, SNAP participation peaked in the fall of 2017, under Trump, which was related to hurricane emergencies.

Sorry for the green-eyeshade stuff, but I thought it was worth more research.

Most people don’t have the time or interest in excavating the details. They just know they aren’t getting the food aid they expected and that neither are millions of other lower-income families. And especially with his dogged determination to block the states from helping out, many are holding Trump accountable.