January 20, 2018: The US government officially shutdown today for the first time in five years after lawmakers failed to agree on a spending deal. Despite last minute bipartisan meetings, the bill to fund the government until 16 February did not receive the required 60 votes in the Senate.
The House of Representatives voted 230-197 on Thursday night to extend funding until next month, but the measure failed to pass the Senate. Many government offices will close unless a compromise is found before the midnight deadline.
However, essential services like national security, post, air traffic control, inpatient medical services, emergency outpatient medicine, disaster assistance, prisons, taxation and electricity production will continue.
President Donald Trump in a tweet yesterday acknowledged that Democratic votes are needed to keep the government funded but said that their demand for a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, meant they favored illegal immigration to the United States. Democrats are demanding prompt congressional votes on DACA reform package that would shield from deportation hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants brought to America as children. The last US shutdown happened in 2013 over health care policy lasted for 16 days. (AIR News)
