Congress on Wednesday ended the longest government shutdown in US history -- 43 days that paralyzed Washington and left hundreds of thousands of workers unpaid while Donald Trump's Republicans and Democrats played a high-stakes blame game.

The Republican-led House of Representatives voted largely along party lines to approve a Senate-passed package that will reopen federal departments and agencies, as many Democrats fume over what they see as a capitulation by party leaders.

"They knew that it would cause pain, and they did it anyway," House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a withering floor speech before the vote, pointing the finger for the standoff at the minority party.

"The whole exercise was pointless. It was wrong and it was cruel."

The package -- which Trump is scheduled to sign la

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