President Donald Trump has signed a bill temporarily reopening the government for three weeks. The deal, passed unanimously by Congress, did not include his $5.7 billion funding request for a border wall.
Image: picture-alliance/CNP/O. Douliery
Advertisement
US President Donald Trump announced a breakthrough in the standoff with lawmakers over the partial federal shutdown on Friday. Congress moved quickly after his announcement, passing a short-term funding bill that Trump signed into law the same evening.
"I am very proud to announce today that we have reached a deal to end the shutdown and reopen the federal government," Trump told reporters at the White House before the legislation was voted on in Congress.
He added that the deal would temporarily reopen the US government for three weeks, until February 15.
Trump vowed to pay back federal employees who have continued to work through the 35-day shutdown, which is the longest in US history.
The deal did not appear to include Trump's demand for $5.7 billion (€5 billion) to fund a wall on the US-Mexico border. However, he said that a "bipartisan conference committee" of lawmakers in the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives and the Republican-controlled Senate would work on border security issues.
US government workers
02:57
This browser does not support the video element.
At the end of his speech, Trump hinted that he was considering taking unilateral action or triggering another shutdown if negotiations on funding a wall at the US-Mexico border failed by the February 15 deadline.
Later on Friday the Senate unanimously passed the bill ending the shutdown, recalling to work thousands of federal workers who had been forced to stay home and providing back pay for two missed paychecks. The measure then proceeded to the House of Representatives, where it also passed with unanimous support. The White House confirmed that the president signed it into law.
The temporary end to the shutdown was largely seen as a victory for congressional Democrats. "The president thought he could crack Democrats, and he didn't, and I hope it's a lesson for him," said the Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer.
However, Trump tweeted late Friday that the deal was not a "concession" and made it clear that he would welcome another shutdown in three weeks' time.
However, the hashtag #TrumpCaved started trending on Twitter in the aftermath of the announced deal, and some of the sharpest criticism of the president came from right-wing media outlets and commentators such as Ann Coulter.
New York Daily News cartoonist Bill Bramhall illustrated his take on the scenario in favor of the House Democrats under House Speaker Nancy Pelosi:
Members of Congress will now use the three-week period before the temporary funding expires to try to reach a compromise on the issue of border security.
While he acquiesced to the stopgap funding bill, Trump underlined that he had not abandoned his goal of a border wall. He devoted the majority of his speech to defending the need for a physical barrier with Mexico, saying that "walls work." The border wall was one of his main campaign promises and a project that he'd repeatedly vowed that Mexico would pay for.
The president did, however, appear to tone down his general plans for the wall, saying that he had never proposed a coast-to-coast barrier.
"We do not need 2,000 miles of concrete wall from sea to shining sea. We never did," Trump said, adding that his plans now involve sections of a "smart wall" that will be see-through, made of steel and have drones patrolling it.
Trump had clashed with Democratic lawmakers over the border wall for weeks, saying he would not reopen government without first securing funding for the project.
US government shutdowns: A chronology
President Joe Biden's government is facing a shutdown if the Republican Congress doesn't approve the budget for the coming fiscal year. DW looks at how shutdowns started, when they became partisan and how much they cost.
Image: Getty Images/D. Angerer
Sundown shutdown
As midnight approaches on September 30, it's go time for Congress: Approve a budget before the start of the new fiscal year on October 1, or shut down the government. Originally, Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution required lawmakers to approve the budget. Honing it further in 1870, the Antideficiency Act targeted agencies that spent money without asking. But deadlines were often missed.
Image: picture-alliance/CNP/A. Edelma
No money, no pay, no work
At the behest of President Jimmy Carter, the US attorney general revisited the Antideficiency Act in 1980 to answer the question: "Without a budget, are government employees required to work?" According to his Attorney General's legal opinion, no money meant no work. Carter's presidency saw only small shutdowns, but the new interpretation of the law turned shutdowns into a negotiating tactic.
Image: picture alliance / Everett Collection
Ronald Reagan and the first shutdown
The first real shutdown — more than 240,000 workers furloughed, more than $80 million (€65 million) down the drain — occurred in November 1981. President Ronald Reagan refused to sign a budget without billions in tax cuts. The Republican-controlled Senate and the Democrat-controlled House found a solution the next day. This happened seven more times by his last year in 1989.
Image: AP
Bill Clinton and the rise of the partisan shutdown
Budget impasses were largely drama-free until 1995, when President Bill Clinton faced off against Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole and House Speaker Newt Gingrich (pictured left). The Republican-led Congress wanted a balanced budget within seven years, higher Medicare premiums and rollbacks on environment regulations. It took 27 days in total to strike a deal. The cost: at least $1 billion.
Image: POOL/AFP/Getty Images
A game for Congress, a headache for the agencies
Many departments such as the military, national security and any deemed essential to the protection of life continue working during shutdowns. But agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must cease operations. This results in delays on tax decisions, food inspection and disease research among other problems.
Image: picture-alliance/BSIP/B. Boissonet
Barack Obama and Congress on Cruz-control
The next major shutdown came in 2013 under President Barack Obama. His Affordable Health Care Act — or Obamacare — faced stark opposition from conservative House Republicans. Led by Senator Ted Cruz, the group pushed for drastic curbs on the health care act in exchange for raising the debt ceiling. The 18-day shutdown resulted in the furlough of some 850,000 workers. The cost: $24 billion.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/C. Dharapak
Shutdown for a wall
The longest shutdown in US history so far lasted 35 days in December 2018 and January 2019. Hundreds of federal workers went without paychecks. Despite the disruption, then-President Donald Trump insisted that funding for his Mexico border wall be included in the budget. In fact, Trump had said he was prepared for the impasse to go on for years — before he gave in and reopened government.
Image: Doug Mills/UPI Photo/Imago Images
Cost of playing politics
The prohibitive cost of shutting down some government operations has not tamed the trend. Washington loses millions not just in revenue, but also in back pay, even though furloughed employees stay at home. So, time lost, work lost — and money lost. According to a 2019 estimate by ratings agency Standard and Poor's, a government shutdown costs the US roughly $6 billion per week.
Image: Imago
Shutdowns contributing to distrust?
The biggest loser is not the economy, or the party that makes the most concessions, it's the government itself. According to a Gallup poll in the aftermath of the 2013 shutdown, public dissatisfaction with the government in general rose to 33%. The previous all-time high regarding political dysfunction was 26% during the Watergate scandal.
Earlier on Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported delays at New York's LaGuardia Airport as well as international airports in Newark and Philadelphia over air traffic control staffing issues.
Air traffic controllers, airport screening staff and other Transportation Security Administration (TSA) staff are among the federal workers who have not been paid during the shutdown.
The shutdown began on December 22, when funding for a portion of the US federal government ran out. For the past five weeks, hundreds of thousands of federal workers have been furloughed or required to work without pay.
