Shutdown set to drag on
WASHINGTON: A partial US government shutdown is almost certain to drag through the Christmas holiday after the Senate adjourned yesterday without breaking an impasse over President Donald Trump’s demand for more funds for a border wall.
With no deal in sight on a Bill to fund the Government, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell sent senators home until Friday.
Financing for about a quarter of federal government programmes — including the departments of Homeland Security, Justice and Agriculture — expired overnight and will not be renewed until a deal is done.
Federal parks were to close and more than 400,000 ‘‘essential’’ federal employees in those agencies must work without pay until the dispute is resolved. Another 380,000 will be ‘‘furloughed’’, meaning they are put on temporary leave.
Law enforcement efforts, border patrols, mail delivery and airport operations will keep running.
The shutdown caps a perilous week for the president, with Defence Secretary James Mattis resigning in protest at Trump’s sudden decision to pull US troops out of Syria. The planned withdrawal was widely criticised, even by senior Republicans in Congress.
The latest dysfunction in Washington does not bode well for bipartisan cooperation next year, when Democrats will have a stronger hand as they take control of the House of Representatives in January.
Earlier in the week, leaders in both the Senate and House of Representatives thought they had reached a deal Trump would sign that contained less money for border security, only to watch the president, under pressure from conservatives, reassert his demand for $US5 billion ($NZ7.5 billion) at the last minute.
President Donald Trump’s national security team continued to disintegrate over the weekend as the administration’s senior envoy to the global coalition fighting Islamic State, Brett McGurk, quit over the president’s abrupt decision to withdraw US forces from Syria.
After almost 10 years, Wall Street’s rally looks like it is ending. Another day of big losses on Saturday left the US market with its worst week in more than seven years. All of the major indexes have lost 16%26% from their highs in the second and third quarter. Barring huge gains during the upcoming holiday period, this will be the worst December for stocks since 1931. — Reuters/AP/ TCA