The three-day government shutdown has come to an end as the president signed a funding bill passed by Congress on Monday. The shutdown, which commenced Friday night, was a result of the inability to come to agreement on a spending bill; Democrats pushing to get something concrete for the DACA program, which the Trump administration rescinded last year and Republicans unwilling to nudge on immigration but offering to extend CHIP for six years, the popular health insurance program for children.
The gridlock occurred over these differences and the procedural vote, which requires at least 60 votes. The inability to gain these votes from the House and Senate Democrats ultimately caused the partial shutdown Friday night. This is the first shutdown in history to take place during a time where every level of government is controlled by one political party, also coming on the one-year anniversary of Trump’s inauguration. The bill passed the Senate on Monday with an 81-18 vote and it passed later that day in the House by a 266-150 vote, with government operations resuming Tuesday morning. After negotiations to include immigration legislation, the House and Senate voted to move forward with continuing legislation and approved funding the government up to February 8th.
In exchange for supporting the funding bill, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. said that he has received assurance from Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. that if a resolution isn’t reached by February 8th, McConnell will bring to the Senate floor a vote to grant legal status to those protected under the DACA program, the more than 700,000 undocumented immigrants brought here as children.
Blame for the shutdown was thrown to both sides of the political aisle. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement released from the White House on Friday, “We will not negotiate the status of unlawful immigrants while Democrats hold our lawful citizens hostage over their reckless demands. This is the behavior of obstructionist losers, not legislators.” Schumer placed the blame on the President saying that the President and Republicans were “rooting for a shutdown” and that it would “crash entirely” on the shoulders of the President.
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