President Donald Trump’s prime-time address to the nation about the southern border will be aired live Tuesday by the major broadcast and cable television networks.
The Latest on the government shutdown (all times local):
7:25 p.m.
President Donald Trump’s prime-time address to the nation about the southern border will be aired live Tuesday by the major broadcast and cable television networks.
Representatives for ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox Broadcasting, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, MSNBC and NBC confirmed plans to air Trump’s address Tuesday night. Trump tweeted that he will speak at 9 p.m. Eastern.
Trump is delivering the address amid a partial government shutdown due to a stalemate with congressional Democrats over $5 billion the president wants to for a wall on the U. S.-Mexico border. Democrats are refusing to pay for a wall.
The speech is part of a public relations blitz by the president on the issue. Trump has scheduled a trip to the border Thursday to highlight his demands for a wall.
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5 p.m.
A Trump administration official says income tax refunds for 2018 will go out on time during the partial government shutdown because rules will be changed to make funding available to pay them.
Russell Vought, acting director of the White House budget office, tells reporters: “The refunds will go out as normal. There is an indefinite appropriation to pay tax refunds.”
The IRS may recall a large number of furloughed employees to process returns — probably without pay — in accordance with its contingency plans. But with the shutdown in its third week, concern was growing that hundreds of billions of dollars in refunds would be delayed until the shutdown ends because funding for them wouldn’t be available.
