“I’ve never seen that kind of offer from a Senate majority.”

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, Illinois’ senior senator and the chamber’s No. 2 Democrat, defended his decision to join seven colleagues in backing a GOP plan to end the nation’s longest government shutdown. Durbin said he supported the temporary deal — which would reopen the government through Jan. 30 and restore pay to furloughed workers — despite progressive backlash because it offered a path to protect food and veterans’ assistance programs. The agreement, he said, came with an extraordinary pledge from Senate Republican leader John Thune to hold a December vote on Affordable Care Act subsidies, though it stops short of guaranteeing an extension. (Chicago Tribune)