A bipartisan group of senators voted 60-40 to approve a key procedural measure that puts legislation reopening the government on track to pass the Senate.

Eight Democrat senators—Illinois’ Dick Durbin, Maine’s Angus King, Nevada’s Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen, New Hampshire’s Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen, Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman, and Virginia’s Tim Kaine—joined 52 Republicans in the procedural vote.

Sunday’s late-night vote may begin the process to reopen the government, but it will likely take at least a day.

Before the government can reopen, the Senate must vote to approve the measure with a simple majority—all but assured after obtaining the 60 votes needed on the procedural test—and then the House must return to Washington to pass the legislation.

“I am optimistic that after almost six weeks of this shutdown, we will finally be able to end it,” Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said before the vote.

“Part of the deal is a vote on the ACA subsidies,” Angus King, a Maine Independent who caucuses with the Democrats, told reporters Sunday upon emerging from a meeting of Senate Democrats. He referred to the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, and the extra COVID-19 pandemic-era subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year without further congressional action.

King cited “the length of the shutdown” as a reason Democrats........

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