Shutdown Day 3: Senate votes again, with the same outcome
Lawmakers are deadlocked on Capitol Hill, and the U.S. economy appears to be at a crossroads. Credit: The Washington Post
The U.S. government shutdown creeps into its first weekend after the Senate on Friday failed for a fourth time to find enough bipartisan votes to advance bills to replenish dried-up agency funding.
There are now stronger signs the federal closure could be protracted. Speaker Mike Johnson even scrapped plans for House members – most of whom already have been away for two weeks -- to return next week to Washington for votes.
Plans can change. But Johnson had said earlier Friday – the third day of the shutdown – that the House will be back in session when Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) "allows us to reopen the government." That was a reference to Senate Democrats not lending enough votes to help advance a House-passed bill to provide agency funding for another seven weeks.
President Donald Trump also made news with word that a massive cut to federal counterterrorism funding for police on Long Island and in New York City has been reversed.
But the partisan funding battle that has centered mostly on Democratic demands to add healthcare provisions remained stuck in the mud.
And in a complicated plotline twist, Schumer reacted to news the House wasn’t returning by saying, “Johnson and the House Republicans care more about protecting the Epstein files than protecting the American people.”
That charge from Schumer and other Democrats is that Johnson is trying to stall the official swearing-in of Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.). He is doing that, the Democrats say, because Grijalva is expected to provide the final signature needed on a petition to force a House vote to compel the Trump administration to release files related Jeffrey Epstein, the late convicted sex offender.
Sarra Sounds Off: Soccer scene and plays of the week On the latest episode of "Sarra Sounds Off," Jolie Katzen and Michael Sicoli recap the girls and boys soccer scene, and Jared Valluzzi has a look at the plays of the week.
Sarra Sounds Off: Soccer scene and plays of the week On the latest episode of "Sarra Sounds Off," Jolie Katzen and Michael Sicoli recap the girls and boys soccer scene, and Jared Valluzzi has a look at the plays of the week.
