Springfield, IL (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – You can trace the end of the government shutdown to eight Senate Democrats who gave the bill enough votes to get going. Springfield’s hometown U.S. senator, Dick Durbin (pictured, right) (D-Ill.), was one of them. All of the eight are either, like Durbin, retiring or do not have their terms coming up in 2026.

Some Democrats will say Durbin’s group caved.

“I respect their point of view, but I came to a different conclusion,” Durbin said during a Springfield question-and-answer with reporters Thursday. “We have gone through the longest government shutdown in the history of the United States. I have been involved in politics all my life, and when you talk about getting an advantage over someone. the crudest weapon in that arsenal is a government shutdown, because you are playing with other people’s lives.”

Durbin denied that votes by people who, in his case, will never face voters again were simply a matter of convenience and that the outrage is phony. He said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) really did try to get him to vote against the re-opening bill.

Most Democrats wanted a provision to extend health care subsidies.