Shutdown scramble
> US lawmakers launch last-ditch bid to end stalemate
WASHINGTON: US lawmakers were set to launch a last-ditch bid yesterday to end a budget impasse before hundreds of thousands of federal workers are forced to start the work week at home with no pay.
The impact of the shutdown that began at midnight Friday has been largely limited so far, closing sites like New York’s Statue of Liberty, but the effect will be acute if the stalemate runs into today.
Republicans and Democrats have traded bitter recriminations over who is to blame for the failure to pass a stop-gap funding measure by a Jan 20 deadline, a year to the day since Donald Trump took office.
Highlighting th e deep political polarisation, crowds estimated to number in the hundreds of thousands took to the streets of major cities Saturday to march against Trump and his policies.
Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell on Saturday set a key vote for a funding measure for 1am today (2pm in Malaysia), with Congress set to reconvene yesterday.
At the heart of the dispute is the issue of undocumented immigration.
Democrats have accused Republicans of poisoning chances of a deal and pandering to Trump’s populist base by refusing to fund a programme that protects 700,000 “Dreamers” – undocumented immigrants who arrived as children – from deportation.
Trump, in return, has said Democrats are “far more concerned with Illegal Immigrants than they are with our great Military or Safety at our dangerous Southern Border”.
The shutdown’s effects meanwhile are set to intensify.
Essential federal services and military activity are continuing, but even active duty troops will not be paid until a deal is reached to reopen the US government.
A deal had appeared likely on Friday afternoon, when Trump, who has touted himself as a master negotiator, seemed to be close to an agreement with Democratic Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer on protecting Dreamers. But no such compromise was in the language that reached Congress for a stop-gap motion to keep the government open.
Congress reconvened for a rare Saturday session, where leaders were meant to hammer out their differences to prevent the shutdown from stretching. Instead, they blamed each other for the shutdown.
Schumer said trying to negotiate with Trump “was like negotiating with Jell-O”. – AFP