WASHINGTON: The United States government was heading toward a shutdown yesterday, with funding expiring at midnight and Democrats and Republicans digging in on their respective demands.
A last-gasp meeting at the White House on Monday yielded no breakthrough on the issue, with top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer saying afterward that “large differences” remained between both sides.
His party, in the minority in both chambers of Congress, is seeking to flex its rare leverage over the federal government, eight months into Donald Trump’s barnstorming second presidency that has seen entire government agencies dismantled.
Rules in the 100-member Senate require government funding bills to receive 60 votes — seven more than the Republicans currently control.
Unless Congress passes a bill before midnight to fund federal operations, the government will partially close up shop — and plunge Washington into a new round of political crisis.
A shutdown would see nonessential operations grind to a halt, leaving hundreds of thousands of civil servants temporarily without pay, and payment of many social safety-net benefits disrupted.
The White House also upped the ante last week by ordering government agencies to prepare for layoffs that would go beyond the usual practice of temporary furloughs during a shutdown.
The move would add to the pain of government workers after large-scale firings orchestrated by tycoon Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency earlier this year. – AFP
