US govt shuts down after Senate rejects funding bill

Washington, January 20 

The US government officially shutdown today for the first time in five years after the Senate rejected a short-term spending bill to keep the federal government running, marking a chaotic end to Donald Trump’s first year as President.

The shutdown began at 12:01 am (local time) after a few Republicans joined Democrats in blocking the crucial measure would have provided short-term funding for the Pentagon and other federal agencies.

Trump blamed the Democrats for the shutdown which comes exactly a year after he was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States. “Dems want a shutdown in order to help diminish the great success of the tax cuts, and what they are doing for our booming economy,” he said.

Despite last minute bipartisan meetings, the bill to fund the government until February 16 did not receive the required 60 votes. The Senate voted 50-48 to block the stopgap funding measure. The short-term spending bill was passed by the House on Thursday.

This is part of the Democrats strategy to force President Trump and the Republicans to negotiate with them on illegal immigrants who are facing deportation.

The effect of the shutdown would be felt most from Monday when the federal government employees would not be able to join for their work and be forced to stay at home without pay.

It is estimated that more than 800,000 federal employees would be furloughed. Only the essential services would be open.

The last time that a government shutdown happened was in 2013.

Earlier in the day, the Office of Management of Budget said it was preparing for “what we’re calling the Schumer Shutdown”.

The Director of Office of Management of Budget Mick Mulvaney said efforts were being made to have the government shutdown less impactful than it was in 2013.

“We’re going to manage the shutdown differently. We are not going to weaponise it. We’re not going to try and hurt people, especially people having to work for this federal government,” he said.

The last government shutdown lasted for 16 days in October 2013. The previous shutdown before that was for 21 days that ended on January 6, 1996. However, this is for the first time in recent history that a shutdown has taken place when the House and the Senate as well as the White House is controlled by the same party. — PTI

Chuck Schumer’s big moment 

The high-stakes standoff over government funding has thrust Chuck Schumer into the brightest spotlight of his young tenure leading Senate Democrats. Huddled negotiations between Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer were unsuccessful, and the US government technically ran out of money at midnight. The White House lashed out at Democratic Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, blaming him for the shutdown “Senate Democrats own the Schumer Shutdown. Tonight, they put politics above our national security, military families, vulnerable children, and our country’s ability to serve all Americans,” Trump’s spokeswoman Sarah Sanders declared