During his election campaign, President Donald Trump promised his voters to build a wall on the border with Mexico. For that reason, he had requested $5.7 bln. Democrats, who won a majority in the House of Representatives, are ready to allocate no more than $1.3 billion to ensure the protection of the border which is obviously not enough.
Overall, this is the third shutdown during Trump's presidency. The previous two disputes between the President and the Congress were resolved fairly quickly.
As a result of this confrontation, some Federal Departments stopped working on December 22 due to the lack of a budget. Although departments and agencies have been affected the most, such institutions as the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, the Justice Department, and some of the White House's officials have also stopped their work.
About 800 thousand civil servants remained without salaries on the eve of the Christmas holidays. At the same time, 380 thousand of them are staying home without pay, and more than 400 thousand will receive compensation only after the approval of the budget.
People are unable to visit the National Christmas Tree near the White House as access to it was limited by the US National Park Service.
Trump held a meeting with the leadership of the Democratic party- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. However, later on Twitter, Donald Trump wrote that the meeting was just a waste of time.
Trump asked Nancy Pelosi whether the government would support the idea of building a wall on the southern border if he opened the government, Pelosi replied that it would not.
Many cultural institutions were closed because of the shutdown. In the photo: visitors of the National Art Gallery in Washington before its closure due to the partial suspension of the US government.
Some cultural institutions owned by the Federal Government also remain closed. A sign near the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco warns that passage on the site, which belongs to the Federal Government, is closed.
Many tourist attractions are still open. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo used state funds to keep the Statue of Liberty in operation.
Washington National Park is also closed to visitors.
For the first time in the last two years, President Donald Trump has made a televised address to the nation from his desk in the Oval Office. He called the situation on the Southern Border the Humanitarian and National Security crisis. "President Trump must stop holding the American people hostage, must stop manufacturing a crisis, and must re-open the government," Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi declared.
S&P has estimated that if the government shutdown lasts, it will exceed the price of building the proposed border wall. The current shutdown will cost the economy about $1.2 billion per week.
In the photo: the closed entrance to the garden at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.
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