OHIO – Parts of the Federal government shut down after midnight last night December 21, 2018. This is the third time closing this year and the first time the government has closed for three times since the 1970’s. Funding for around 1/4 of the government expired at midnight the affected groups are homeland security, justice, housing and urban development. The senate did pass a bill to ensure federal employees receive back pay.
Lawmakers are struggling to find a common ground in negotiations and Senator Portman released a statement this morning, “There is a way forward to both strengthen border security and reopen government and I hope the current negotiations are successful in doing just that. I support increasing funding to better secure our borders, including more fencing, other barriers, and more technology and surveillance along the border, as outlined both the president’s budget and the bipartisan spending bill that passed the Senate earlier this year. A continued partial government shutdown would result in less funding for the border and, as always happens with shutdowns, would result in more government spending since back pay and other expenses are paid once government reopens. In fact, I’ve introduced legislation to end government shutdowns for good and will continue to push to make that legislation the law of the land.”
President Trump said he believed their would be a shutdown and looked to place blame on Democrats, “The chances are probably very good” that there is a shutdown.
“It’s really the Democrat shutdown, because we’ve done our thing,” Trump continued. “Now it’s up to the Democrats as to whether we have a shutdown tonight. I hope we don’t, but we’re totally prepared for a very long shutdown.”
According to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, “we need Democratic votes, and we also need a presidential signature.”
Message from the National Weather Service regarding their operations during the partial government shutdown:
“The NWS will continue to operate 24×7 through the government shutdown to provide reliable forecast and warning information. Our social media presence will remain as close to normal as possible, but we will generally be limiting posts and replies to subjects that are directly related to forecasts and warnings.”
