domingo, 21 de enero de 2018

US government goes into shutdown after Senate rejects funding bill

The United States has its first government shutdown in nearly five years after senators failed to reach a deal to keep the lights on.
A pro-Dreamer placard at a rally in Washington on Friday night.
An effort by Republicans to keep the government open for one month was rejected in a vote on Friday night after they failed to address Democratic concerns about young undocumented migrants known as Dreamers.
Republicans needed 60 votes to pass the bill. Five red-state Democrats supported it while four Republicans voted against and 12am ET came and went without a deal, causing funding for the federal government to lapse.
Federal law requires agencies to shut down if Congress has not appropriated money to fund them. Hundreds of thousands of “non-essential” federal employees will be put on temporary unpaid leave. In previous shutdowns, services deemed “essential”, such as the work of the homeland security and the FBI, have continued.
On Saturday morning, Donald Trump greeted the news with a typical flurry of tweets. “This is the One Year Anniversary of my Presidency,” he wrote, “and the Democrats wanted to give me a nice present. #DemocratShutdown.
White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said later Trump would not negotiate immigration policy with Congress until the shutdown ends.
Speaking on the floor after the vote on Friday night, the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, also assailed the opposition party, saying the shutdown was the result of a “cynical decision by the Democrats”. Minority leader Chuck Schumer delivered a scathing rebuke of Trump. The New Yorker said the president “walked away from two bipartisan deals” and that “a Trump shutdown will serve as a perfect encapsulation for the chaos he has unleashed”.
A White House statement issued just before midnight said “this is the behavior of obstructionist losers, not legislators”.
Democrats blamed Republican divisions. Oregon senator Ron Wyden said lawmakers from his rival party were not on the same page as Trump.
“You’ve got the three branches of government – everything,” Wyden said. “Can these folks organize a two-car parade?”

You can read the whole article clicking here: The_Guardian



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