What’s up with the partial government shutdown on Day 24:
WHAT’S NEW
President Donald Trump is showing no signs of budging on his insistence that any spending deal to end a partial government shutdown includes billions of dollars for a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border. He told farmers attending a convention in New Orleans: “When it comes to keeping the American people safe, I will never, ever back down.”
Air travelers endured waits of more than an hour to get through domestic checkpoints at the world’s busiest airport in Atlanta on Monday. No-shows among screeners across the nation soared Sunday and again Monday, when the Transportation Security Administration reported a national absence rate of 7.6 percent, compared with 3.2 percent on the comparable Monday a year ago.
Like some of his recent predecessors, Trump is carefully picking and choosing where he’ll travel during the partial government shutdown.
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QUOTES OF THE DAY
“It’s chaos out here,” passenger Vincent Smith said as he stood in a line that snaked through the Atlanta airport’s atrium and baggage claim areas. “This line, I’ve been here about 15 minutes, and it has moved 2 feet.”
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WHAT’S COMING NEXT?
Trump is expected to sign legislation this week authorizing back pay for some 800,000 federal workers who either have been idled or are working without pay for as long as the shutdown lasts.
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WHAT REMAINS CLOSED
Nine of the 15 Cabinet-level departments have not been funded, including Agriculture , Homeland Security, State, Transportation, Interior and Justice. Some iconic National Park facilities are shuttered as are the Smithsonian museums and the National Zoo in Washington. Nearly everyone at NASA is being told to stay home, as are most at the Internal Revenue Service, which processes tax returns and issues refunds, though the administration says it will issue refunds during the shutdown.
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WHO IS AT WORK BUT NOT GETTING PAID
Some 420,000 federal employees whose work is declared essential are working without pay, including at the FBI, TSA and other federal law enforcement offices. Some staff at the State and Homeland Security departments are also working without compensation.
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For AP’s complete coverage of the U.S. government shutdown: https://apnews.com/GovernmentShutdown
