1 year on, Trump leads US into gov't shutdown
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump marked the first anniversary of his inauguration Saturday with his government in shutdown, accusing Democrats of taking Americans hostage with their demands.
From midnight Friday, in the absence of an agreed spending plan, federal services began to come to a halt or be scaled back, even as lawmakers continued to argue on the floor of the Senate.
Essential services and military activity will continue but many public sector workers will be sent home without wages and even serving soldiers will not be paid until a deal is reached to reopen the US government.
Soon after the news broke, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney issued a memo to government agencies, telling them they "should now execute plans for an orderly shutdown due to the absence of appropriations."
A deal had appeared likely earlier Friday, when Trump seemed to be close to an agreement with Democratic Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer on a measure to prevent the expulsion of undocumented migrants who arrived in the country as children.
But no such compromise was in the language that reached Congress for a stop-gap motion to keep the government open for four more weeks while a final arrangement is discussed – and Republicans failed to win enough Democratic support to bring it to a vote.
The White House lashed out at Schumer, blaming him for the shutdown and doubling down: Trump's spokeswoman Sarah Sanders declared that he would never negotiate an immigration deal until Congress agrees to resume normal government spending.
"Senate Democrats own the Schumer Shutdown," she declared.
"Tonight, they put politics above our national security, military families, vulnerable children, and our country's ability to serve all Americans.
"We will not negotiate the status of unlawful immigrants while Democrats hold our lawful citizens hostage over their reckless demands," she said.
Republican majority leader Mitch McConnell echoed the White House's language, but Schumer fought back, blaming Trump for leading him to believe a deal was possible on the immigration dispute but then failing to bring his own party along.
"Every American knows the Republican Party controls White House, the Senate, the House – it is their job to keep the government open. It is their job to work with us to move forward," Schumer told the Senate, after the 50 to 49 vote.
"They control every ounce of the process and it is their responsibility to govern and here they have failed," he declared.