Shutdown extends as crunch vote delayed
Several federal workers will stay home without pay
US lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on January 22, ending a government shutdown before the start of the working week as they postponed a crunch vote in the Senate despite marathon negotiations.
Although leaders of President Donald Trump’s Republican party and the Opposition Democrats said that progress had been made in a weekend of talks, they pushed back a vote scheduled for 1 am on January 22, for another 11 hours.
The delay means that the shutdown — which casts a huge shadow over the first anniversary of Mr Trump’s inauguration as President— will force thousands of federal government workers to stay at home without pay when they would normally report for duty on January 22 morning.
After a special weekend session of Congress which had seen bitter recriminations traded by both parties, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell pledged to address Democrat concerns over key issues such as immigration reform in a speech to the chamber late on January 21.
The top Democratic Senator, Chuck Schumer responded by saying he was “happy to continue my discussion with the majority leader about reopening the government” but added that the parties were “yet to reach an agreement on a path forward.”
McConnell then called for Congress to reconvene for another vote on a stop- gap funding measure at noon, a proposal which was nodded through.