From the moment Sen. Jeanne Shaheen first voted to shut down the government, the New Hampshire Democrat was on the hunt for a deal to reopen it.
Each day of the funding lapse was an exercise in frustration — one step forward, two steps back — as talks sputtered, tempers flared, expectations rose, deals fell apart and the nation's longest shutdown dragged on.
"In my experience," Shaheen told a small group of reporters in her office Monday, "the last foot is the hardest in a negotiation."
The "last foot" came on Sunday, after a grueling weekend of Democratic infighting, weeks of financial pain for federal workers, and a month of — in the words of one source close to bipartisan negotiations — "a moveable feast" of shuttle diplomacy that was led by Shaheen, her fellow New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan, and Independent Sen. Angus King of Maine.
While the final deal falls far short of the key demand for most Democrats — an extension of the expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies — it gives Democrats a December vote on extending those subsidies, as Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., first promised during an MSNBC interview weeks ago. Most lawmakers expect that vote to fail, but it will place the blame for skyrocketing premiums at the feet of Republicans, and Democrats are hoping the political blame may be so costly that Republicans will actually work with them to find a solution.
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