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U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday he will temporarily end the longest government shutdown in U.S. history until February 15, while dropping his previous insistence on immediate funding for wall construction along the Mexican border. The White House later confirmed Trump had signed it into law.
"I am very proud to announce today that we have reached a deal to end the shutdown and reopen the federal government," Trump said in the White House Rose Garden.
The three-week spending deal reached with congressional leaders, quickly passed by the Republican-led Senate and the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives without opposition, paves the way for tough talks with lawmakers about how to address security along the U.S.-Mexican border.
But while the president climbed down in agreeing to reopen the government without first getting 5.7 billion U.S. dollars in border wall funds, he still threatened to renew hostilities with a new shutdown or a state of emergency, if there is no breakthrough on his pet project in the next three weeks.
"In a short while, I will sign a bill to open our government," he said. "Over the next 21 days, I expect that both Democrats and Republicans will operate in good faith."
"If we don't get a fair deal from Congress, the government either shuts down on February 15 again, or I will use the powers afforded to me under the laws and Constitution of the United States to address this emergency," he warned. "We really have no choice but to build a powerful wall or steel barrier."
The government closure was in its 35th day on Friday and was threatening the economy as hundreds of thousands of federal workers missed a second paycheck on Friday. The U.S. Senate rejected two shutdown-ending bills on Thursday.
With polls showing most Americans blamed him for the painful shutdown – the longest of its kind in U.S. history – Trump embraced a way out of the crisis that Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had been pushing for weeks.
The Republican president's agreement to end the shuttering of about a quarter of the federal government came three days after he had insisted that he will not "cave" in the standoff.
Trump triggered the shutdown in December as a way of putting pressure on congressional Democrats after they refused his wall funding demand.
A lapse in funding had partially shuttered the government, with about 800,000 workers either furloughed or required to work without pay. Many employees, as well as contractors, were turning to unemployment assistance, food bank and other support. Others began seeking new jobs.
(Cover: U.S. President Donald Trump arrives to speak in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, DC, U.S., January 25, 2019. /VCG Photo )
Source(s): AFP
,Reuters