US government shuts down after Senate fails to pass last-ditch funding plan _ BBC News

BBC NEWS

The US government has shut down for the first time in six years after senators failed to pass a last-minute funding bill.   This would now likely leave hundreds of thousands of workers on unpaid leave and halting many government programs and services.   Both Democrats and Republicans are laying blame on each other when it comes to the shutdown.    While Republicans control both chambers of Congress, they fall short of the 60 votes needed in the Senate to pass a spending bill.

Transcript

00:00Hello, I'm Sally Bondock. We begin the program with breaking news.

00:04The U.S. government has shut down for the first time in six years

00:08after lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on extending federal spending.

00:13So these are live pictures now from Capitol Hill,

00:16where it is just after midnight Eastern time.

00:20In the Senate on Tuesday, Democrats rejected Republicans' plans

00:24to extend the federal government for at least another seven weeks,

00:28demanding a reverse to health care cuts to offer their support.

00:34During a shutdown, essential workers continue as normal, some without pay,

00:40but government employees deemed as non-essential are temporarily on unpaid leave.

00:48President Trump had warned that he would use the shutdown

00:52to bring in a wave of mass irreversible firings

00:55of thousands of non-essential federal workers.

00:59He also promised to permanently change landmark health care policies

01:03brought in by the Obama and Biden administrations.

01:08We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible,

01:12that are bad for them and irreversible by them,

01:15like cutting vast numbers of people out,

01:18cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like.

01:20So they're taking a risk by having a shutdown,

01:23because because of the shutdown, we can do things medically and other ways,

01:28including benefits.

01:30We can cut large numbers of people out.

01:33We don't want to do that, but we don't want fraud, waste and abuse.

01:38Well, as the Senate failed to reach an agreement,

01:41the Republican Majority Leader John June and Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer

01:45blamed each other for the impasse.

01:48This is ready to pass right now.

01:51This keeps the government open.

01:53This funds the government and protects federal workers

01:56and the American people from the hostage-taking

01:59that has become, evidently, now the Democrat norm.

02:04We stand at the precipice of a government shutdown

02:07because Republicans are not serious about keeping the government open.

02:12If you want one glaring instance of that,

02:16Speaker Johnson sent his people home.

02:19They're home right now,

02:20even though the government will collude at midnight.

02:22There's only one conclusion you can draw

02:25when the Speaker sends the House home,

02:29that he wants a shutdown.

02:30He doesn't want to negotiate.

02:32Well, let's speak to our North America correspondent, Peter Bowes.

02:35Hello to you, Peter.

02:37So the shutdown is now begun.

02:39What does that mean?

02:43Well, it means that essentially this is a partial shutdown of government services.

02:48Not everything is affected.

02:50And, of course, essential services, emergency services,

02:53will continue unchanged.

02:55But there will be plenty of services

02:57that over a period of time Americans will notice.

03:00I don't think there will be an immediate impact on people living their everyday lives.

03:05But especially people visiting this country might notice

03:08that some of the tourist attractions have closed down,

03:12the national parks,

03:13maybe some of the monuments that people might have been planning to visit.

03:16And, again, over a period of time,

03:18the airports could be affected.

03:21This is something that we noticed during the last shutdown

03:23almost seven years ago,

03:25again, during a Trump administration,

03:27the first administration that the security workers

03:30and air traffic controllers at the airports were working.

03:34They were not being paid during that time

03:37until the shutdown finished.

03:38And it led during that period of time

03:40to some of those people leaving their jobs

03:42because of the hardship that they were suffering.

03:45That led to long delays at the airports.

03:47As I say, it won't happen immediately,

03:49but it is a possibility over a period of time.

03:51And each side is blaming the other for this shutdown

03:56and the consequences that will follow.

04:00How will this be resolved?

04:01Do we know how this political stalemate will be overcome?

04:07Well, there will have to be a compromise on one side.

04:10And at the moment, there's no sign, Sally, of that taking place.

04:14And the blame game really started several days ago

04:17because this closure of services

04:19was beginning to look inevitable, I would say,

04:22a couple of days ago.

04:23In fact, during the last few hours,

04:25the White House on their website

04:27has had one of those countdown clocks

04:29counting the minutes and the seconds.

04:32And as it turned midnight,

04:34the message on the website changed

04:36to Democrats have shut down the government.

04:39So very directly, the White House blaming Democrats.

04:43Democrats are saying that it's the Republicans' fault.

04:45And the issue at the heart of this is health care.

04:48The Democrats want to see included in the spending bill

04:51provisions to extend some provisions

04:54that came with Obamacare

04:56that are due to expire in a couple of months' time

04:59at the end of the year.

05:00The Republicans say that they want to have,

05:03as they put it,

05:04a clean bill that excludes any external issues

05:09like health care.

05:11And the two sides poles apart.

05:13And there will, as I say, have to be compromised.

05:16But certainly listening to the statements

05:18that we've just heard just now

05:20and what people have been saying in Washington

05:22for the last couple of days,

05:24neither side wants to be the first to back down.

05:26OK, Peter, thank you very much.

05:28Peter Bowes there, our North America correspondent.

05:30Thank you very much.

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