Political deadlock in the US; Government shutdown to continue

Afghan Voice Agency (AVA) - International Service: News sources reported that the US Democrats' bill to end the country's government shutdown was not approved.

 

Al Jazeera reported that the US Senate (controlled by pro-Trump Republicans) rejected the bill presented by the Democrats to finance the government.

 

The rejection of this bill will mean the continuation of the US government shutdown.

 

It is worth noting that after the Congress' deadline to reach an agreement on the budget before the start of the new fiscal year expired without a result on October 1, the US government went into shutdown on Wednesday, October 1 (September 9). This is the first government shutdown since 2018.

 

As the country heads toward a midnight Eastern Time deadline, with hundreds of thousands of federal workers facing furloughs or layoffs, Democrats and Republicans have traded blame and refused to back down.

 

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer accused Republicans of “bullying” Democrats by refusing to negotiate on health care and other priorities.

 

Hours before the shutdown, Donald Trump told reporters he had “no choice but to lay off federal workers” if no deal was reached.

 

In a polarized Washington with a narrowly divided Congress, the threat of a government shutdown has become a regular feature of recent budget battles.

 

In 2018, during Trump's first term, a 34-day government shutdown marked the longest in modern American history, during which about 800,000 of the 2.1 million federal employees were furloughed without pay.