WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Congress looked set Wednesday to end the longest government shutdown in US history — 43 days that paralysed Washington and left hundreds of thousands of workers unpaid while Donald Trump’s Republicans and Democrats played a high-stakes blame game.

The House of Representatives was expected to rubber-stamp a contentious Senate-passed funding package that will reopen federal agencies. But the Democratic base is furious over what it sees as a capitulation by its leaders.

“We believe the long national nightmare will be over tonight. It was completely and utterly foolish and pointless in the end, as we said all along,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters, pointing the finger for the standoff at the minority party.

The package would fund military construction, veterans’ affairs, the Department of Agriculture and Congress itself through next fall, and the rest of government through the end of January.

Around 670,000 furloughed civil servants will report back to work, and a similar number who were kept at their posts with no compensation — including more than 60,000 air traffic controllers and airport security staff — will get back pay.

The deal restores federal workers fired by Trump as a result of the shutdown, and air travel that has been disrupted across the country will also gradually return to normal.

During a Veterans Day speech at Arlington National Cemetery on Tuesday, Trump broke off to take a victory lap over the shutdown ending.

“We’re opening up our country — it should have never been closed,” said Trump, bucking presidential tradition by using a ceremonial event to score political points.

Johnson and his Republicans — who have a two-vote margin and almost no room for error — are bracing for one or two rebels to balk at the terms.

The deal appears likely to pass roughly along party lines, with Democratic leadership — furious over what they see as their Senate colleagues folding — urging members to vote no.