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Category Archives: US federal government shutdown 2019
Responding to Donald Trump's decision to declare a national emergency to fund his border wall with Mexico, House speaker Nancy Pelosi says he is setting a precedent that should be met with 'great unease and dismay' and the Democrats are considering making a legal challenge. 'You want to talk about a national emergency? Let’s talk about today,' Pelosi adds, noting that it is the first anniversary of the massacre at Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school, in which 17 people died
President is expected to sign bill but has vowed emergency action to build border wall with Mexico
Donald Trump has vowed to declare a national emergency as a way of funding his long-promised border wall with Mexico, as Congress overwhelmingly approved a border security agreement that would prevent a second damaging government shutdown.
After days of uncertainty, Trump announced his intention to support the massive $333bn-spending package, which includes on a sliver of what he sought for a steel wall. The Senate moved quickly, approving the bill in a vote of 83-16. Hours later the House passed the legislation, 300-128. Trump is expected to seal the deal with his signature on Friday, while at the same time declaring a national emergency.
Donald Trump has suggested he is open to a compromise border security measure that would avert another US government shutdown as the House pushed toward a vote on the agreement before the funding deadline expires on Friday.
Republicans and Democrats have broadly embraced the proposed legislation, but have cautioned that they will wait to see the final text of the bill, which includes far less funding than Trump initially sought for his wall along the border with Mexico.
As President Trump prepared to speak at the border Monday in another expected call for a wall to curtail illegal immigration, Governor Gavin Newsom defended his decision to withdraw national guardsmen from the California-Mexico border, saying that “this whole border issue is manufactured.”
Cliff Sims, the former White House communications aide who wrote a tell-all about life working for President Trump, is suing the president, alleging that he used his campaign organization to selectively enforce nondisclosure agreements to silence or punish former employees, the New York Times is reporting.
Mr. Sims was a White House aide from the beginning of the administration. But it was the campaign organization that filed an arbitration claim against him last week, accusing him of violating the nondisclosure agreement he signed with it during the 2016 presidential race with the publication of his book, “Team of Vipers,” last month.
The White House had dozens of people sign such agreements at the beginning of the president’s term. But those agreements are widely seen as likely unenforceable. In the suit, Mr. Sims says he does not recall whether he signed one when he came to the White House.
Bipartisan negotiators are running out of time to reach a deal over Trump’s demand for a border wall
Bipartisan negotiators in Washington are running out of time to reach a deal over Donald Trump’s demand for a border wall after talks stalled, raising the prospect of another government shutdown starting on Friday.
Leaders from both main parties sitting on a 17-strong negotiating panel must reach a deal over the disputed border security issue by Monday if there is to be time for Congress to pass legislation and Trump to sign it before the latest deadline of 15 February. Should they fail to reach agreement within hours, federal agencies, already exhausted after the 35-day shutdown that ended last month having impacted 800,000 federal employees, will yet again start to close from Friday at midnight.
Government employees – especially in science, research and technology – could find higher pay and more stability
The longest government shutdown in US history has come to an end, but experts fear its long-term consequences will include a brain drain among professionals who won’t want to work for a federal government they can’t count on to stay open.
The pain of the shutdown and fear of another one may drive away current and would-be government employees – especially those in highly skilled fields such as science, research and technology who can often command bigger paychecks in the private sector.
Thanks for staying with us through another eventful day. We’ll see you tomorrow.
The Guardian’s Erin Durkin is at former Starbucks CEO and possible independent 2020 presidential candidate Howard Schultz’s first stop of his book tour, which has turned into a town hall of sorts.
Speaking at a New York Barnes and Noble, he ruled out any possibility that he would run as a Democrat, despite his life-long affiliation with the party.
In 2020, the great likelihood is that an independent would just split the anti-Trump vote and end up re-electing the President. That's a risk I refused to run in 2016 and we can't afford to run it now. https://t.co/SmHM6cYUg7pic.twitter.com/iQ2CK5o2k6
Howard Schultz doesn’t have the “guts” to run for President! Watched him on @60Minutes last night and I agree with him that he is not the “smartest person.” Besides, America already has that! I only hope that Starbucks is still paying me their rent in Trump Tower!
National park saw ‘irreparable’ damage including vandalism, ruined trails and trees cut down, says former superintendent
The former superintendent of Joshua Tree national park has said it could take hundreds of years to recover from damage caused by visitors during the longest-ever government shutdown.
“What’s happened to our park in the last 34 days is irreparable for the next 200 to 300 years,” Curt Sauer said at a rally over the weekend, according to a report from the Desert Sun. Sauer retired in 2010 after running the park for seven years.
For many liberals, it will read as the spoils of Nancy Pelosi’s finest hour and proof of her superior bargaining acumen. For disappointed conservatives pundits, evidence that Trump is a proper “wimp” in his act of capitulation.
Measure will fund government for three weeks after US economy lost more than the $5.7bn funding president requested for wall
Donald Trump has signed legislation to end temporarilythe longest-ever partial shutdown of the US government, which has left hundreds of thousands of federal employees without pay for more than a month.
The US economy lost $6bn during the month-plus hiatus because of lost productivity and business, according to a finance industry estimate – more than the $5.7bn of taxpayer funding the president demanded for his long-promised wall along the US-Mexico border but failed to get Congress to agree to.
The blase attitude of Trump administration officials is a world away from the experience of federal employees – who fear a repeat in three weeks’ time
Even as he announced an end to the longest government shutdown in US history, Donald Trump warned that a new shutdown could begin in just three weeks “if we don’t get a fair deal from Congress”.
That threat meant that clouds of uncertainty still remain in place for hundreds of thousands of government workers and unknown others whose lives were interrupted or derailed by a shutdown precipitated and prolonged by the president’s demand for a border wall, which he redoubled on Friday.
Caught between the political savvy of Nancy Pelosi and the wrath of Ann Coulter the president secured not a penny for his wall
Richard Nixon once said there can be no whitewash at the White House. But it would be fair to say there is now a white flag.
It was metaphorically waved by Donald Trump in a chilly yet sunny Rose Garden on Friday when he declared an end to the partial government shutdown after 35 tortuous days.
The US president, Donald Trump, renewed his call for a border wall and threatened another government shutdown or emergency action if he did not get a ‘fair deal’. This came as the president announced he and congressional leaders had reached a short-term deal to reopen the government for three weeks while negotiations continue over the president’s demands for money to build a wall at the US-Mexico border. Trump announced the agreement on Friday to break the 35-day impasse as delays at the nation’s airports and widespread disruption brought new urgency to peacemaking efforts.
Roger Stone has apparently called into InfoWars, the website-cum-radio show of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
The InfoWars website seems to be having some problems, so I couldn’t listen in. But Paul Joseph Watson, InfoWars editor-at-large and noted crank, says Stone told the website:
Stone says just before 6am 29 agents burst into home w weapons, allowed him to dress, scared death out of his wife, taken to FBI Miami Dade, where he says agents treated him very well, then did bond hearing - shackled hands and feet - Special Counsel and US atty there, $250k bail https://t.co/HyKA5Fmmlt
Of course, Roger Stone wasn’t the only Trump ally appearing in federal court this morning.
Around the same time Stone was shuffling into Fort Lauderdale court in chains, Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, was in the US District Court for the District of Columbia in Washington DC.
His eyes tired and his hair streaked with grey, Paul Manafort looked morose and walked gingerly, with a limp, during his first court appearance in months on Friday.
The former Donald Trump campaign chairman, imprisoned in Virginia as he awaits sentencing, wore a suit and was not handcuffed during the hour-long hearing at the US District Court for the District of Columbia in Washington, which focused mainly on procedure.
Senator Michael Bennet, a Colorado Democrat, delivers a powerful speech on the impact of the US government shutdown, having been provoked by the Republican Ted Cruz's apparent concerns for emergency workers
Gabrielle Canon here, taking over for Lauren Gambino for the rest of the evening.
As negotiations with top Democrats over funding for the border wall continue at an impasse, CNN is reporting that the Trump Administration has already drafted a backup plan.
Trump has not ruled out using his authority to declare a national emergency and direct the Defense Department to construct a border wall as Congress and the White House fight over a deal to end the government shutdown. But while Trump’s advisers remain divided on the issue, the White House has been moving forward with alternative plans that would bypass Congress.
‘The massive amount of aliens who unlawfully enter the United States each day is a direct threat to the safety and security of our nation and constitutes a national emergency’, a draft of a presidential proclamation reads”.
As the longest US government shutdown continues, unpaid workers are feeling the strain. Hundreds of thousands of federal employees have gone without pay for weeks
‘We cannot even calculate the level of risk currently at play, nor predict the point at which the entire system will break,’ representatives write
Union leaders representing air traffic controllers, pilots and flight attendants issued an urgent warning on Wednesday that the month-long government shutdown was threatening the safety and security of the nation’s air travel system.
“We cannot even calculate the level of risk currently at play, nor predict the point at which the entire system will break,” the union leaders wrote. “It is unprecedented.”
Republican-backed measure would meet Trump’s wall demand while the second would extend funding for closed agencies
The Senate will vote on Thursday on a pair of bills that could end the month-long partial shutdown of the federal government– if passed.
The first bill, a Republican-backed measure, would meet Donald Trump’s demand for a $5.7bn wall along the southern border in exchange for temporary protections for young undocumented immigrants. The second would extend funding for the agencies that are currently closed through to 8 February.
Since taking office, Trump has made 7,645 ‘false or misleading claims’. In the month of October he said 1,200 things that were false or misleading, according to Fact Checker database
Donald Trump’s tumultuous presidency has presented problems for journalists the world over. But spare a thought for the people whose job it is to keep track of his lies: the Trump factcheckers.
Since taking office, the president has lied about everything from immigration figures to the number of burgers he served to the Clemson football team at the White House last week.