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WASHINGTON (AP) – A senior White House official announced Sunday that President Donald Trump was ready to accept less money than he was demanding for the construction of a wall US-Mexican border, but a congressional Democrat said his own offer You still can not accept a wall.
There was little hope that the shutdown of certain federal government operations during the Christmas period would end later this week, when the House and the Senate
In fact, the chief White House acting cabinet minister, Mick Mulvaney, warned that the closure could last until January, when a new congress will be sitting.
Mulvaney, who also runs the White House's budget office, said he was waiting for a response from Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer of New York after the administration had presented Saturday in Schumer a counter-offer in the long-standing dispute over the financing of the wall.
Mul vaney hid the details but put the offer between $ 5.7 billion and $ 1.3 billion proposed by Democrats.
"We've gone from the five and we hope they're going up by 1.3," Mulvaney said.
The Director's Commentary The president's moderate stance came less than 24 hours after a senior government official urged reporters on Saturday for Congress to yield to Trump's demands, underscoring the unpredictability of his style of negotiation.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Rather advocates for increased use of technology along the border instead of building a "medieval wall".
He asked him if he was willing to raise the price as long as the money would not be spent on wall, Durbin replied, "Absolutely."
A stalemate on the wall led some Government parties closed on Saturday after the expiry of funds allocated to many departments and agencies. The closure, which would affect hundreds of thousands of federal workers across the country, was to last at least until the end of the week after the House and Senate were lifted, which unfolded until the end of the week. 39, at a weekend, until Thursday.
Monday and Tuesday, Christmas Eve and Christmas, respectively, are federal holidays, which means that the federal government would already be closed. Wednesday is the first day that the public could begin to feel the effects of a stop, Mulvaney said.
He predicted that this could last until January, when Democrats will take control of the House based on their mid-term electoral gains.
"It is quite possible that this judgment will extend beyond the 28th and will enter the new Congress," said Mulvaney.
Justin Goodman, spokesman for Schumer, replied: "If the Director Mulvaney says that the Trump stop will last until the New Year, believe him, because it's their closure.
The Democrats stood firm on Sunday against a wall that Trump had promised his political base to build. Mulvaney said that "the president is not going to accept money for a border wall".
Trump has to face resistance from some Republicans. Retired senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, who criticized Trump over other issues, called the battle for funding the border wall a "fictitious battle for the president to feel like he was fighting."
"It's something useless. It's a show. And frankly, it's juvenile. All of this is minor, "said Corker, arguing for concrete steps that, in his view, will help secure the border better than a wall.
Trump tweeted Sunday, the second day of the closure, that it needed "a good old wall that works," No aerial drones or other measures that are "wonderful and very fun" but not the solution to fight drugs, gangs, trafficking in human beings and other criminal elements entering the country.
Throughout the country, the closure has been uneven. Statue of Liberty remains open to visits, thanks to New York State, and the US Postal Service, an independent agency, still distributes mail.
But the routine of 800,000 federal employees will be disrupted. half are considered essential and should work without pay, retroactive pay is expected, 380,000 more were to be laid off, which means they will not show up for work but will be paid later. the workers rs would receive salary arrears should be released by Congress.
Trump stayed in Washington for Christmas because of the closure of the White House, announced the White House.
Democrats preparing to take control of the House on January 3, and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Paul Ryan, R-Wis., Withdrawing from Congress, this closure offered a last breath to the conservative majority before the new Congress.
Trump had savored the prospect of a closure over the wall. He recently said that he would be "proud" to close the government and reiterated his commitment not to blame the Democrats for this closure.
He had campaigned on the promise to build the wall and compel Mexico to pay for it. . Mexico refused.
Schumer and Vice President Mike Pence met on Saturday at the request of the White House, according to Schumer's office. But the spokesman for the senator said that they remained "very far" on an expenditure agreement.
Schumer said the "Trump blocking" could end immediately if the president gave up the wall. t include the wall, which according to Schumer was too expensive and inefficient. They proposed to maintain the current spending of $ 1.3 billion for border fencing and other security measures.
Senators approved a bipartisan agreement earlier in the week to leave the government open in February and spend $ 1.3 billion on border security projects. Wall. But while Trump was facing Conservative criticism for "yielding" to an election promise, he pushed the House to approve a package of measures to temporarily finance the government but also setting aside $ 5.7 billion. dollars for the wall of the border.
Departmental ministries and dozens of agencies, including Homeland Security, Transportation, Interior, Agriculture, State and Justice.
Of the people going into liquidation, almost all of NASA's people and 52,000 workers of the Internal Revenue Service. Many national parks had to close.
The Pentagon and the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Health and Social Services are among those fully funded by Congress and will function normally. The FBI, the Border Police and the Coast Guard were still functioning.
Transportation Security Administration officers continue to assign control points at the airport and air traffic controllers were stationed. This week. Durbin talked about "Meet the Press" on NBC and Corker was interviewed on "State of the Union" on CNN.
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