Is the US government shutdown over, and why did it happen?

The US House of Representatives will vote on Wednesday on whether to bring the longest-ever government shutdown to an end.

The fallout has left around 1.4 million federal employees unpaid, suspended food to many low-income Americans and delayed thousands of flights for airline passengers.

Here we unpack your key questions about the historic US funding deadlock.

When will the US government shutdown end?

The Republican-controlled House will meet on Wednesday afternoon for a brief debate before it holds a vote on the legislation.

The party can only afford to lose two votes in the lower chamber so the vote is expected to be close.

The package passed the Senate 60-40 on 10 November, after seven Democrats and one independent sided with Republicans to approve the measure.

President Donald Trump has said he will swiftly sign it into law.

"We're opening up our country," he said on Tuesday.

But it may still take a few days to reopen the government.

And with the busy Thanksgiving holiday period looming at the end of the month it could take weeks for airlines to recover from the disruption.

The busiest airports in the country have been reducing their capacity to cope with absence by unpaid air traffic controllers calling in sick.

What's in the funding package?

The 328-page deal deal extends money for most federal agencies until 30 January.

But it would provide funding for Snap food aid, as well as the Department of Agriculture, Congress and veterans affairs until September next year.

It guarantees that all federal workers will receive back-pay, and reverses the shutdown-related layoffs of thousands of federal workers.

Democrats will get a vote in December on extending healthcare subsidies that are due to expire by the end of the year, a key sticking point, although Republicans offered them this weeks ago.

Why did the US government shut down?

In the US system, both chambers of Congress must approve a spending plan to send to the president to be signed into law.

The Republicans currently control both the House of Representatives and the Senate, but at the end of September, they were seven short of the 60 votes needed to pass an earlier spending bill in the Senate.

That gave the Democrats some negotiating leverage. The party's main demand was that the bill should include an extension of expiring tax credits that make health insurance cheaper for millions of Americans.

The House was able to pass a temporary funding bill to avoid the shutdown, but it could not clear the Senate amid Democratic resistance.

So on 1 October, the US government shut down for the first time in nearly seven years.

Which government services have stopped, and which have carried on?

Thousands of government employees deemed non-essential have been furloughed - temporarily put on unpaid leave.

But not all aspects of government stop during a shutdown.

Federal law enforcement are expected to operate as usual, Social Security and Medicare cheques are still distributed, and mail is delivered. The Trump administration has so far found money to pay the troops.

Air traffic controllers are also expected to work without pay, but some of them have been calling in sick, leading to many flights being cancelled or delayed.

More than 42 million Americans who rely on Snap food aid benefits have received only partial payments after the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to withhold some funding pending further legal hearings.

While most federal employees are not paid during a shutdown, members of Congress do continue to receive their salary.

How has the shutdown affected the economy?

The impact of government shutdowns on the economy is typically limited and temporary - similar to the disruption caused by a hurricane or major storm.

But it still causes problems. Approvals for loans and permits are delayed and hundreds of millions of dollars in federal contracts are suspended.

Unlike government employees, contractors do not receive back pay once a shutdown ends, and many of them are small businesses without other big clients.

Overall, analysts estimate this shutdown will knock roughly 0.1 to 0.2 percentage points off economic growth for each week that it continues - about $15bn a week.

What happened during previous US government shutdowns?

Shutdowns over budgets are a unique aspect of US politics.

The second-longest ever shutdown dragged on for 34 days, beginning in late 2018 during Trump's first presidential term.

But these legislative standoffs predate the current president.

There were eight shutdowns during the presidency of Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, though all were relatively brief.

Former Democrat President Bill Clinton had a 21-day shutdown in 1995, while his fellow Democrat Barack Obama had a 16-day shutdown in 2013.

Do you have questions about the US government shutdown? Or are you a federal worker affected by the current situation? Get in touch via this form or by emailing [e-mail]