US government ends longest shutdown in history
On January 25, US President Donald Trump signed a budget support bill to temporarily reopen the government for full operations for 3 weeks, thereby ending the partial government "freeze" that has lasted for more than a month.
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| US President Donald Trump. |
However, the bill sets a three-week deadline, until February 15, for lawmakers and the White House to discuss border security.
The bill was passed by the US Senate with an overwhelming majority and was also approved by the US House of Representatives shortly thereafter.
In recent days, disagreements over the $5.7 billion budget for building a wall on the border with Mexico have been the reason why the Democrats and Republicans have been unable to agree on the government budget for fiscal year 2019, causing a partial shutdown of the US government since December 22, 2018.
So far, the Trump administration and Democratic leaders in Congress have conducted several rounds of negotiations to break the deadlock, but none have led to positive results.
This partial government shutdown is the longest in US history and has affected a quarter of federal agencies with about 800,000 federal employees having to leave their jobs or work without pay.
However, Mr. Donald Trump still warned that he would continue to shut down the government or declare a state of emergency if there was no breakthrough in the $5.7 billion border wall project within the next 3 weeks.
"In a short time, I will sign a bill to reopen the government. Over the next 21 days, I hope that both Democrats and Republicans will operate in good faith," he said.
"If we don't get a fair deal from Congress, the government will shut down again on February 15, or I will use the powers afforded to me under the laws and the Constitution of the United States to address this emergency," the US leader warned.
