US President Donald Trump allowed the federal government to shut down if Republicans and Democrats in the US Congress do not reach a consensus on the bill to continue funding it until October 1.
“We will continue to negotiate with the Democrats, but I think the country could be shut down for a while“, Trump said during a meeting with reporters at the White House. "We're going to take care of the military, we're going to take care of welfare," he continued, adding that in the event of a government shutdown, "a lot of the things that Democrats are fighting for are not going to be paid for."
"We'll see how things go and what we do," Trump said, explaining that in order to keep the government funded, the bill, previously approved by the US House of Representatives, must also be supported by the Senate. "We have 53 senators and we need 60 votes. That means Senate Democrats have to vote in favor. And I don't think they're going to vote that way," the White House chief concluded.
On Friday, the Senate rejected two bills that would have continued funding the federal government. The Republican-drafted bill, approved in the lower house, received the support of 48 lawmakers, while the bill drafted by Democrats in the Senate received the support of 47 lawmakers. Thus, the Senate failed to pass the bill that would have prevented a possible government shutdown on October 1. According to US media, this dramatically increases the likelihood of a shutdown, as Congress is on recess next week.
In March, Trump signed a law extending funding for the federal government through the end of the fiscal year, which ends on September 30. This averted a government shutdown that had threatened to begin on March 15. It would have shut down several government agencies and programs and temporarily suspended the pay of hundreds of thousands of government employees, many of whom would have been laid off.
Since 1977, such funding has been interrupted more than 20 times due to disagreements between the administration and Congress. The longest shutdown lasted 35 days - from December 22, 2018 to January 25, 2019 - during Trump's first term.