Washington: The US Government has shut down after President Donald Trump and Congress failed to strike an agreement over federal funding. it is for the first time in seven years that such a situation has arisen in the US.
Due to the development, the funding for US government departments will be cut, and this will bring several federal services to a halt. On Tuesday, Democrats blocked Republicans' plans to pass the spending bill in the Senate.
Democratic leaders on Monday met US President Donald Trump, but failed to come to an agreement.
However, Trump on Tuesday continued to take a dig at House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. He even blamed Democrats, saying that he "didn't see them bend even a little bit."
The US President also threatened to fire more federal workers during the shutdown. "When you shut it down, you have to do layoffs, we'd be laying off a lot of people," Trump said.
Democrats are reportedly demanding a reversal of the healthcare cuts in the "Big Beautiful Bill," which was passed earlier this year. However, Republicans said they would not agree to Democrats' demands and had proposed to extend funding until November 21.
Even though Republicans control both the Senate and the House of Representatives, they still fell short of seven votes in the Senate to get the funding bill passed. Notably, the bill required 60 votes to pass, and it received 53 votes.
After the shut down, only essential services, including border protection, law enforcement, and air-traffic control, will continue to function. Meanwhile, food assistance programmes, government-funded pre-schools, and operations at national parks are likely to be affected.
