The US government officially shutdown today for the first time in five years after lawmakers failed to agree on a spending deal. Congress didn’t pass the budget before the midnight Friday deadline which paved the way for shutdown.
US President Donald Trump blamed Democrats for the shutdown which comes exactly a year after he was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States.
The shutdown began at 12:01 am (local time) soon after the Senate rejected a short-term spending bill to keep federal government running. The bill was passed by the House on Thursday.
The White House has issued a statement and blamed Senate Democrats for blocking a bill to avert a shutdown. The statement further added that the White House will not negotiate on immigration – a key demand of Democrats.
“We will not negotiate the status of unlawful immigrants while Democrats hold our lawful citizens hostage over their reckless demands,” the statement said.
This is part of the Democrats strategy to force President Trump and the Republicans to negotiate with them on illegal immigrants who are facing deportation.
Following the shutdown, only essential services and military operations will continue, while hundreds of thousands of US government defence workers, park rangers and business regulators are temporarily out of work.
In a tweet, the US Embassy in India said that the American Center and the American Center Library are closed and will remain closed until further notice.
A last minute meeting between US President Donald Trump and top Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer to avert a government shutdown due to lack of funds, had failed after the two leaders continued to “have a good number of differences”.
The meeting was held at the request of Trump as part of his efforts to reach a deal with Democrats on at least a short-term extension of government funding, which needs Congressional approval and the current authorisation ended on Friday.
In the absence of such an authorisation, functioning of the federal government has come to a standstill, with hundreds and thousands of its employees forced to stop working at stay at home without pay.
The last time that a government shutdown happened was in 2013. It was for more than a fortnight.
(With PTI inputs)