The US federal government partially shutdown on Saturday following the failure to resolve a political impasse over demands made by the US President
WASHINGTON, U. S. – The U. S. federal government partially shutdown on Saturday following the failure to resolve a political impasse over demands made by the U. S. President Donald Trump.
Last week, Congressional leaders failed to sign a budget deal, plunging the government into a partial federal shutdown.
The federal government was partially shutdown at midnight on Friday, with financing for several federal government offices expiring, about 380,000 government employees being forced to take temporary, unpaid leave and about 420,000 employees working, but not getting paid for it.
Yet, in a bid to resolve the stalemate over Trump’s demands for $5 billion in funds to construct the Mexico border wall, Congressional leaders met at The Capitol on Saturday, but failed to reach a consensus.
Opposition Democrats have refused to accede to Trump’s demands, claiming that the proposed border wall was “too costly and too unpopular.”
Meanwhile, the President and Republicans are trying hard to push for approval over billions in funding before Democrats take over the majority of the House on January 3,2019.
The Republican Party controls both chambers of the outgoing Congress, which is set to meet after the Christmas holiday – on Thursday.
‘Fund the wall, reopen the government’
However, on Tuesday, Trump clarified that the partial shutdown of the federal government was going to last until his demand for funds to build the wall are met.
Following a Christmas Day video conference with U. S. troops serving abroad, Trump told reporters, “I can’t tell you when the government is going to reopen. I can tell you it’s not going to reopen until we have a wall, a fence, whatever they’d like to call it. I’ll call it whatever they want, but it’s all the same thing. It’s a barrier from people pouring into the country, from drugs.”
Trump argued, “If you don’t have that (the wall), then we’re just not opening.”
Trump’s comments follow accusations by top Democrats that the president was “plunging the country into chaos.”
On Monday, House speaker nominee, Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, released a joint statement and said, “It’s Christmas Eve and President Trump is plunging the country into chaos.
