President Trump on Wednesday signed a government funding bill to officially end the longest shutdown in history after 43 days.

Trump signed legislation in the Oval Office, where he placed blame for the shutdown on Democrats while surrounded by Republicans lawmakers and other GOP officials.

"Today we are sending a clear message that we will never give in to extortion, because that`s what it was," Trump said.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), House Republican Conference Chair Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) and other lawmakers joined Trump in the Oval Office. Republican megadonor Ken Griffin and former New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) , who now leads an airline lobbying group, were also in the room.

The Senate voted earlier this week, 60-40, to pass a bill to fund military construction, veterans` affairs, the Department of Agriculture and the legislative branch through Sept. 30, and the rest of government through Jan. 30. Eight Democrats joined with 52 Republicans to meet the 60-vote threshold and send the bill to the House.

The House passed the bill on Wednesday in its first chamber-wide vote in nearly two months. The vote in the lower chamber was 222-209, with six Democrats joining all but two Republicans to support the measure.

The bill reverses widespread layoffs of federal employees the White House sought to carry out during the shutdown, and it includes protections to prevent future layoffs until early next year, at the earliest.

The funding bill does not include any extensions of Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire in January and cause sharp increases in health care premiums. Democrats had for weeks insisted that they would only support a funding agreement that included extensions for those subsidies.

Trump met with Democratic leaders days before the shutdown began, but the president otherwise refused to meet with Democratic lawmakers while the government was closed.

As Trump`s frustration with the shutdown mounted, he called for Republicans in the Senate to scrap the filibuster in order to pass a funding bill and other legislation without Democratic support, a move that gained little traction. Trump also acknowledged the shutdown had been a negative for Republicans following Democratic election wins in Virginia and New Jersey last week.

The White House during the shutdown moved to layoff thousands of government workers, reduced flight capacity at major airports amid a strain on air traffic controllers and challenged a judge`s order to pay recipients of the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP).

Trump said Wednesday the effects of the shutdown "will take weeks and probably months to really calculate accurately," and he expressed optimism the shutdown could be a political boon to Republicans during next year`s midterm elections.

"So, I just want to tell the American people you should not forget this when we come up to midterms and other things," Trump said. "Don`t forget what they`ve done to our country."