US shutdown to gain impact
Federal workers, public to feel post-holiday hangover
WASHINGTON: Christmas has come and gone but the partial government shutdown is just getting started.
The first full business day resumed yesterday after several government departments and agencies closed up over the weekend due to a budgetary stalemate between President Donald Trump and Congress. And there is no end in sight.
So far, the public and federal workers have largely been spared inconvenience and hardship because government is closed on weekends and federal employees were excused from work on Christmas Eve and Christmas, a federal holiday. The shutdown began at midnight last Friday.
Trump said on Tuesday that the closed parts of the government will remain that way until Democrats agree to wall off the US-Mexico border to deter criminal elements. He said he’s open to calling the wall something else as long as he ends up with an actual wall.
Asked when the government would re-open fully, Trump said he couldn’t say.
“I can’t tell you when the government’s going to be open. I can tell you it’s not going to be open until we have a wall or fence, whatever they’d like to call it,” Trump said, referring to Democrats who staunchly oppose walling off the border.
“I’ll call it whatever they want, but it’s all the same thing,” he told reporters after taking part in a holi- day video conference with representatives from all five branches of the military stationed in Alaska, Bahrain, Guam and Qatar.
Trump argued that drug flows and human trafficking can only be stopped by a wall.