US govt staff sit at home sans pay as shutdown drags on

Washington: Hundreds of thousands of US federal employees were forced to stay home without pay on Monday after legislators failed to reach an agreement on ending a government shutdown before the start of the work week.

Although leaders of President Donald Trump’s Republican Party and the Opposition Democrats said progress had been made in a weekend of talks, they pushed back a scheduled late-night Sunday vote on a stopgap funding measure to Monday at noon.

Mr Trump goaded Democrats from the sidelines, accusing them of placing non-citizens ahead of Americans.”

“They don’t want to do it but are powerless,” he tweeted, referring to the Democratic leadership in Congress.

The impasse had already cast a huge shadow over the first anniversary of Mr Trump’s inauguration as President on Saturday. After special weekend sessions of Congress which had seen bitter recriminations traded across the political aisle, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pledged in a speech to the chamber late on Sunday to address Democrat concerns over key issues such as immigration reform.

The Senate’s top Democrat Chuck Schumer responded by saying he was “happy to continue my discussion with the majority leader about reopening the government” but added that the parties were “yet to reach an agreement on a path forward.”