The federal government partially shut down on midnight Saturday after lawmakers were unable to reach agreement on a spending deal to keep the government open — and a race to assign blame began.
The partial shutdown began at midnight a few hours after House and Senate adjourned. It was expected to last at least a few days, with sources on both sides of the aisle telling Fox News that Washington could be in for a prolonged shutdown. The White House, however, was projecting confidence that they could secure a deal.
Talks were expected to resume Saturday afternoon, but Sunday was expected to be the key day for negotiations to end the shutdown. Lawmakers were aiming for a tentative agreement on all seven outstanding appropriation bills, to be funded until the end of September 2019. A senior source close to the negotiations told Fox News that they will aim to “see by Sunday morning if there is a center of gravity” for nailing down a deal.
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The main sticking point for negotiations was funding for Trump’s signature 2016 campaign promise of a wall on the southern border. Trump had demanded $5.7 billion for wall funding, and a bill with that funding attached passed the House on Friday. But efforts have snarled in the Senate, where 60 votes were required for passage, and therefore Democrat votes are needed.
Trump has been keen to blame Democrats for the impasse and on Friday urged Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to invoke the so-called “nuclear option” which would change Senate procedure to require only a simple majority to approve the bill — therefore allowing Republicans to override Democratic objections.
“Mitch, use the Nuclear Option and get it done! Our Country is counting on you!” he tweeted on Friday.
Late Friday he emphasized the need for a wall in a video he posted to Twitter and blamed the shutdown on the Democrats.
“We’re going to have a shutdown, there’s nothing we can do about that because we need the Democrats to give us their votes,” he said. “Call it a Democrat shutdown, call it whatever you want, but we need their help to get this approved.”
Democrats meanwhile sought to blame the president and blasted what they called a “temper tantrum” from the White House.
“Instead of honoring his responsibility to the American people, President Trump threw a temper tantrum and convinced House Republicans to push our nation into a destructive Trump Shutdown in the middle of the holiday season,” a joint statement late Friday by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. said.
The Democratic leader said they have offered “multiple proposals” to keep the government open, all of which they said includes “funding for strong, sensible, and effective border security – not the president’s ineffective and expensive wall.”
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The Senate appropriations bill passed on Wednesday is the base bill for funding, and that allocated $1.6 billion for border security. But, it did not spend all money available under sequestration caps. So, there is an extra $900 million available, that could theoretically go toward funding the wall. If that was allocated, it could offer Trump a total wall/border package of about $2.5 billion.
Fox News is told Trump would accept the increase in wall funding, and that the administration believes it can find additional wall money across various federal programs that could be “reprogrammed” for the wall. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said on “America’s Newsroom” this week that there were “other ways that we can get to that $5 billion.”
It is expected that the Senate will move first, perhaps on Sunday, with the House following later that night. Congress has a little bit of wiggle room as it has a weekend, followed by Christmas Eve — for which Trump has given federal workers a day off — and then Christmas Day. So that means that the partial shutdown will not fully bite until Wednesday.
About one-quarter of the government will be affected in a shutdown. Nine of the 15 Cabinet-level departments are to shutter, along with dozens of agencies. Those departments are: Agriculture, Commerce, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Justice, State, Transportation and Treasury.
Essential personnel would still be required to work but without pay. Nearly 90 percent of the Homeland Security staff is deemed essential.
Roughly 420,000 workers will be deemed essential and will work unpaid, while more than 380,000 people will be furloughed in the shutdown – meaning they will experience a temporary leave from their work
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This will include most of NASA, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Commerce Department and National Park Service workers. Additionally, about 52,000 IRS workers would be furloughed.
The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) will remain open as usual during a partial government shutdown because it is “an independent entity that is funded through the sale of our products and services, and not by tax dollars,” a spokesman told Fox News.
TSA agents, air traffic controllers and border security agents also will be required to work through a shutdown – albeit they might not get a paycheck right away.
Amtrak, a government-owned corporation, also will continue with normal operations during a short-term shutdown, a spokeswoman confirmed to Fox News.
Members of Congress will continue to be paid, as legislative branch appropriations had already been approved back in September, and the 27th Amendment bars ““varying the compensation” for lawmakers until after each election.
Fox News’ Kaitlyn Schallhorn and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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