U.S. President Donald Trump said that he has reached a deal with Congressional leaders to reopen the government for three weeks.
The deal to end the 35-day partial government shutdown does not include Trump’s demand of $5.7 billion to build a wall at the country’s southern border with Mexico.
But in his speech Friday, Trump said if talks on border security fail to produce a “powerful wall or steel barrier,” he would shut down the government again on February 15 or declare a national emergency to build one.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats have repeatedly called for Trump to reopen the government before lawmakers negotiate the issue of border security.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer of N.Y., smile during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, Jan. 25, 2019, after President Donald Trump announces a deal to reopen the government.
The announcement came as the effects of the longest shutdown in American history were spreading across the nation.
In New York, airplanes were being delayed at least 90 minutes. The government reported that the delay was caused by a small “increase in sick leave” from air traffic controllers in centers in Florida and Washington, D.C. The workers are among the 800,000 federal employees who have not been getting paid during the shutdown.
Officials added that many airport security screeners were not reporting to work because of financial stresses.
At the Internal Revenue Service, less than half of the recalled workers reported to work. The Trump administration had called back workers to deal with the increase in tax filing activities.
In a video message, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Christopher Wray, said he was “about as angry as I’ve been in a long, long time.”
Wray called the shutdown “short-sighted” and “unfair.” He added that all FBI workers were feeling financial stresses from the shutdown.
Hai Do wrote this story for Learning English with additional reporting from the Associated Press. Ashley Thompson was the editor.
Write to us in the Comments Section or on 51VOA.COM.
______________________________________________________________
Words in This Story
partial - adj. not complete or total
screener - n. the person that screen something or sopmeone, especially dangerous