It’s been almost a week since the government entered a partial shutdown, attributed to growing tensions between President Donald Trump and Congress regarding the president's urging for border wall funding.
Unfortunately, as the year comes to an end, it’s now clear that any hope for a resolution has been diminished, according to an article co-written by Erica Werner, Paul Kane and Felicia Sonmez for the Washington Post.
From the article:
About 25% of the federal government has been shut down since Saturday, with roughly 800,000 workers affected, including an estimated 350,000 who are on furlough at home without pay. At the heart of the stalemate is Trump’s demand for $5 billion in funding for his proposed wall at the U.S.-Mexico border. Congressional Democrats have rejected that figure and made counteroffers of as much as $1.6 billion for border security but not for a new wall.
Notably, the article states that a spokesperson for soon-to-be House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., claimed Democrats’ could potentially roll out a bill that funds the government, but excludes funding for Trump's border wall. This bill could go before the floor on Jan. 3, but here's the kicker – this will be the first day that Democrats take control of the House of Representatives, which lessens the likelihood that a future bill would contain border wall funding.
The Post reports that the potential legislation would only be a short-term solution to fund the government, similar to the bill the Senate passed prior to the shutdown.
The legislation would likely extend government funding through Feb. 8, mirroring a bipartisan bill the Senate passed last week before Trump withdrew his support, starting the chain of events that ended in the shutdown. The Senate would have to repass that legislation in January, as it will be before a new Congress.
