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Jenna Portnoy
Journalist covering the Virginia, Maryland and DC Congress Delegations
Congressional Legislators Do not See a Clear End to the Partial Closure of the National Government by thousands of federal workers. Authorities have asked Congress to approve $ 5 billion for the construction of a wall along the US border with Mexico, a claim that Democrats have rejected as wasteful.
In the middle of the stalemate, 25% of federal government members were closed. Approximately 800,000 federal employees are expected to be affected across the country. Employees classified as "essential" – including security at airports, armed forces and those occupying other jobs in the emergency services – will continue to work, while approximately 350,000 employees The federal government is on leave at home without pay, according to a government article entitled Government Executive.
Members of the House were informed that there would be no vote on Thursday, which means that the partial closure should last at least Friday. Many of the country's national parks were also closed and the Internal Revenue Service planned to close taxpayer assistance lines, among other operations, several weeks before the deposit season.
The closure also began to affect the country's judicial system, such as the Department of Justice. asked a federal judge to temporarily suspend certain cases until the government provided funds to the department.
"Now that the holidays are behind us, the cold reality of the closure will begin to be felt," said Representative Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.), Who represents Northern Virginia, where resident thousands of federal employees.
But neither party referred to a relaxation of its position. On Wednesday, shortly after arriving in Iraq for a surprise visit, Mr Trump told the press that he would be going "to the wall" for a visit before the State's speech on the subject. Union pronounced at the end of January.
could last, Trump replied: "No matter what it takes. We need a wall. We need security for our country. Even from this point of view.
A spokesperson for Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) In the House of Representatives said that the likely project of the Democrats is to submit the government to a bill that will allow the government not to not finance the Trump Wall. January 3rd. It's the first day of the new session of Congress when Democrats take control of the House.
Democrats have supported the inclusion of additional $ 1.3 billion in funding for border security at some point, subject to an additional agreement. $ 1.6 billion in negotiations with congressional Republicans.
But congressional Democrats insist that Mr. Trump will not accept anything from the $ 5 billion that he claimed for the wall. Congressional Democrats are particularly concerned about the possibility of rewarding Trump for threatening to overthrow the government following a political demand, which could set a dangerous precedent. Under the Obama regime, Congressional Republicans also threatened to overthrow the government for sabotaging Planned Parenthood and undermining the Affordable Care Act.
"I'm afraid you're hijacking the federal government for your latest whim – that's a common sentiment, and many Republicans privately share this concern," Connolly said.
Rep. Mark Meadows (RN.C.), a conservative House leader who met Trump on Saturday, said the president had encouraged congressional Republicans to negotiate with Democrats to "find some sort of way forward." But Meadows also said that he saw "no evidence" the Democrats are about to move.
"If the Democrats believe that this president will yield on this issue, they read it badly," Meadows told CNN. "I can tell you that his resolution is very firm."
The urgency of concluding an agreement can be magnified by the volatility of the stock market, which has experienced the worst downturn in its history on Christmas Eve and is entered bearish territory in certain sectors. . The Dow Jones industrial average was up more than 1,000 points on Wednesday, as markets recovered from the sharp decline.
Many federal workers also come for work not knowing if they will be paid. The latest rulings ended with funding bills that include back pay for fired federal employees, but there is no guarantee that Congress will continue to do so.
Maria Ortega, 44, lives near San Diego and is the wife of a Homeland Department. A security guard said that she and her husband had tried to talk to their two children about the closure without frightening them.
"We do not want to burden them unnecessarily, but they know that the government is closed and that Dad The paycheck does not come," said Ortega, who added that his family did not live a paycheck, but said that she had already reconsidered the possibility of having her car washed and buying coffee in the morning. "The irony is that the closure began with the financing of the wall and that it is the border workers who are the most affected, who are not paid."
Other federal workers begin to feel the effects. Paul Greenberg, a NASA researcher and physicist at the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, is collaborating on a Homeland Security-funded project to create sensor sets that first responders and firefighters can wear to monitor their exposure to chemicals. suspended in the air. as a telescope to send back data from deep space. The telescope is supposed to be in orbit in 2020.
"You can not build something ever built before sitting idle," he said. "Everything just stops."
"We are told that we are worthless pests," said Greenberg, who spent 30 years at NASA and is the liaison with Congress for the International Federation of Professional Engineers and Engineers. "I'll tell you, retirement always looks more attractive."
But Chris Chmielenski, director of content and activism at NumbersUSA, said the Democrats should support the votes they had taken in previous years to strengthen border security. NumbersUSA, which advocates restricting immigration, has generated more than 10,000 calls to the White House and members of Congress as part of the battle for market closure.
"Democrats can say that they have backed billions of dollars for fencing, and that's something that's going to be legislated, they have suddenly retreated," Chmielenski said.
Seung Min Kim contributed to the writing of this report.
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