lccuk.org

Wednesday, January 2, 2019

On Friday, United States President Donald Trump announced a deal that would temporarily end the 35-day partial federal government shutdown. The shutdown began in late December 2018 when President Trump and Congressional Democratic leadership failed to reach a compromise regarding the funding of a proposed wall along the US-Mexico border. Under this plan, the government will remain open for three weeks while negotiations continue.

both houses of the United States Congress, passed measures to temporarily re-open the government, which has been partially shut down since December 22, and this interim spending bill has been signed byPresident Donald Trump. This bill does not allocate funds for a wall along the country’s border with Mexico, which has been the principal point of contention. The measure allocates funds for the government to reopen and remain open until February 15, during which time the President and Congress will continue to negotiate.

“The President has agreed to our request to open the government and then debate border security,” said Senate Minority Leader, Democrat Chuck Schumer. He went on to say “We don’t agree on some of the specifics of border security. Democrats are firmly against the wall. But we agree on many things such as the need for drug inspection technology, humanitarian aide [sic], strengthening security at our ports of entry. And that bodes well for finding an eventual agreement.”

The shutdown began December 23, when a quarter of the US’s federal agencies, those deemed non-essential, immediately ceased operations or closed over the next few day until funding completely stopped. Eight of the fifteen federal departments were affected, including the Departments of State, Agriculture, Transportation, Interior, Justice, and Homeland Security.

Approximately 800,000 federal employees worked unpaid or were furloughed over Christmas and New Year’s as Congress went on a scheduled recess. Congressional procedures can approve back pay for employees affected by the partial shutdown only after all the appropriations bills are signed into law. Of the federal services that closed, the National Parks and Landmarks remained visible, but states like New York subsidized the operational costs to keep vital attractions like the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island open.

This shutdown was caused by whether “the wall” should receive funding. The wall was a centerpiece promise during Trump’s successful 2016 United States presidential campaign, at which time Trump said Mexico would subsidize the construction. Mexican President Andrés Obrador has repeatedly stated that his country would not provide funding, though he was willing to talk about illegal immigration. It remains Mexican foreign policy to not fund the wall in any way, but was willing to talk about illegal immigration.

In an effort to start construction of the wall, Trump requested the allocation of US$5.7 billion with no amendments or bills on how he intends to retrieve the money from Mexico.

Trump and the Congressional leadership, including then-Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and then-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California’s 12th district, discussed the deal going late into the night on Friday, December 21. Neither chamber of Congress was able to bring the spending bills in question to the floor. A purposed stopgap measure that did not contain funding for the wall but nonetheless funded the government into February, with the caveat it would be in the FY2019 spending, also did not make it to the floor by 8:30 pm EST (1300 UTC) that day.

Heated rhetoric over the wall has been consistent since the 2016 election. Schumer characterized his observation of Trump inside the Oval Office on December 21 on the floor of the Senate as having a “temper tantrum.” With the 2018 US midterm elections, the Democrats will take solid control of the House of Representatives and leave the Republicans with a one-seat majority in the Senate. The new Congress has lost certain key Republicans like former House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin to retirement and Arizona Senator Jeff Flake to his decision not to seek reelection, leaving major negotiations to Trump as he ramps up his campaign for a second presidential term against a Democratic field taking shape with Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts announcing following New Years.

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