US govt shuts down, as Congress fails to pass Funding Measure
US govt shuts down, as Congress fails to pass funding measure: The US government officially shut down on Saturday, halting all but the most essential operations for the first time in five years after lawmakers failed to agree on a spending deal.
The shutdown happened exactly one year after US President Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States. Trump blamed Democrats for the shutdown.
The shutdown began at 12:01 am (local time) soon after the Senate rejected a short-term spending Bill to keep federal government running.
This is part of the Democrats strategy to force President Trump and the Republicans to negotiate with them on illegal immigrants who are facing deportation.
Efforts are being made to have the government shutdown less impactful than it was in 2013, said Director of Office of Management of Budget Mick Mulvaney.
“We’re going to manage the shutdown differently. We are not going to weaponise it. We’re not going to try and hurt people, especially people having to work for this federal government. But we still need Congress to appropriate the funds,” he added.
Fanny and Freddy, the post office, the Transportation Security Administration will be open, but again all of these people will be working for nothing, which is simply not fair, he said.
Notably the House of Representative has already approved a short-term extension of government funding for about a month, but the legislation is now stuck in the Senate.
“The President stands ready to sign that Bill to keep the government functioning and afloat. It appears, unfortunately, that Senate Democrats are entrenched in forcing a shutdown. I think there is obviously a lot of hypocrisy in this town. I think there’s some ironies to point out,” he said.
-PTC News
