Dec. 22 (UPI) — The federal government partially shut down Saturday as President Donald Trump disputed with Congress over his demand for $5.7 billion to pay for a border wall in a spending bill.
The shutdown affects thousands of federal employees as funding for nine departments and other federal agencies lapsed at midnight.
Many federal agencies and services, such as the U.S. Postal Service, the military, the Department of Veteran Affairs, Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare and food stamps will not be affected, but 380,000 employees will likely be sent home without pay and some 420,000 others may have to work without pay, The New York Times reported.
Trump has refused to accept lawmakers’ spending bill compromises without funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, and continued to demand funding Friday evening in a video on his Twitter page.
“Our great country must have border security,” Trump said. “We don’t want people coming in that aren’t supposed to be here. We want people to come in through a legal process. It’s very dangerous out there.”
Trump added that he needed Democrats votes help to secure funding for the border wall. The Senate is expected to reconvene Saturday at noon, and could vote on a House-backed bill that would appropriate the $5.7 billion Trump wants for the border wall.
“Call it a Democrats shutdown, call it whatever you want, but we need their help to get this approved,” Trump said. “The shutdown hopefully will not last long.”
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