Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger and the Commonwealths’ two senators are split on a deal approved Sunday to reopen the government.
“Virginians need to and Virginians want to see the government reopen,” Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger said on the CBS News program Face the Nation Sunday, just hours before a first Senate vote was held which could see the government reopen.
The compromise deal would undo President Donald Trump’s efforts to lay off more federal workers, as well as fund the government through January. It would also fund initiatives around agriculture, military construction and legislative agencies for most of 2026.
In a call with reporters Monday, Senator Tim Kaine, who voted in favor of the effort, said the deal, after securing employment for federal workers, was the best option to get to what he called a “high stakes debate” on healthcare subsidies.
“We have a path to a fix where, while government was shut down, we had no path to a fix,” Kaine said, noting he brought the federal employee protections to the table himself.
But Virginia’s other senator, Mark Warner, voted against the measure alongside Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Bernie Sanders.
In a statement, Warner said a future vote offered in the deal to shore up healthcare subsidies, the heart of Democrats’ standoff in the budget debate, was not enough.
“I cannot support a deal that still leaves millions of Americans wondering how they are going to pay for their health care or whether they will be able to afford to get sick,” Warner, who's up for reelection in 2026, said in a statement sent Monday.
Sanders was more succinct: “This was a very, very bad vote," the Vermont Senator said in a social media post, fearing capitulation on healthcare subsidies.
Support from outside the government was mixed. American Airlines praised the effort saying it would get federal aviation workers paid after a 40-day lapse. Service Employees International Union, the public employees' union, was glad to see federal employees get pay checks again, but they feared increasing healthcare costs were still likely.
Kaine said the senate should wrap up their work on the bill before it heads to the House. He expects the bill to land on Trump’s desk by this weekend.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
