U.S. media reports say President Donald Trump President Trump agreed on January 25 to reopen the federal government for three weeks while negotiations continued over how to secure the nation’s southwestern border, backing down after a month long standoff failed to force Democrats to give him billions of dollars for his long-promised wall.
According to The New York Times, the president’s concession paved the way for the House and the Senate to both pass a stopgap spending bill by voice vote. Mr. Trump signed it on Friday night, restoring normal operations at a series of federal agencies until February 15 and opening the way to paying the 800,000 federal workers who have been furloughed or forced to work without pay for 35 days.
The plan includes none of the money for the wall that Mr. Trump had demanded and was essentially the same approach that he rejected at the end of December and that Democrats have advocated since, meaning he won nothing concrete during the impasse.
Recall, the shutdown left 800,000 federal workers without pay and struggling to make ends meet, as the effects on government services and the economy reverberate nationwide.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll reportedly found more than half of Americans blamed Trump for the shutdown even as he has sought to shift blame to Democrats after saying last month he would be “proud” to close the government for border security.
