Washington: The US Senate blocked Thursday plans to reopen shuttered federal agencies, a fresh setback in efforts to end the month-long government shutdown, but President Donald Trump signalled he could back a new proposal if it includes border security.
The legislative deadlock left Congress and the President red-faced and adrift as thousands of federal workers, some reliant on food banks to make ends meet, are about to miss a second paycheck.
But shortly after the votes, a possible way out of the deepening crisis began to take shape, when Senate leaders huddled in private to discuss a proposal to fund lapsed federal agencies for three weeks, to allow for negotiations over border security.
Asked if he would support the plan, discussed in private by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer, Trump was non-committal. He said he would still want funding for his wall.
“If they come to a reasonable agreement, I would support it,” Trump said, but added: “We have to have a wall in this country.”
Trump had backed a Senate measure which would have reopened the government, funded the wall and included some immigration policy changes. It earned 50 votes to 47 against, but it needed 60 to advance.
A competing proposal by Senate Democrats that would open government through February 8 without funding Trump’s wall, and leave room for border security negotiations, also failed to move forward by a similar tally.
The shutdown is now in its 34th day, with some 8,00,000 federal workers left unpaid across the country and in US installations abroad – and the knock-on effects affecting millions more. As acrimony in Washington grew, lawmakers across the political spectrum were left scrambling for an exit strategy for the longest-ever halt to federal operations.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen next. Nobody knows,” warned Senate Republican Richard Shelby. But Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator who often has the President’s year, said he discussed with Trump the new proposal gaining traction: a continuing resolution that funds government for three weeks.
“All of us believe that if we had three weeks with the government open, with all the discord coming from a shutdown, that we could find a way forward to produce a bill that he would sign,” Graham said on the Senate floor. He added in a tweet that Democratic priorities for disaster relief were also included, ‘showing good faith from both sides’.
AFP
