New US Congress Grapples with Government Shutdown

New US Congress Grapples with Government Shutdown

CAPITOL HILL —

A new, politically divided U.S. Congress is being sworn in and confronts an immediate task: ending a partial government shutdown that is nearing the two-week mark.

A day of pageantry on Capitol Hill as Democrats take control of the House of Representatives and Republicans see their Senate majority bolstered.
House Democrats have pledged to pass a spending bill that includes border security funding, but omits money for wall construction along the U.S.-Mexico border, as demanded by President Donald Trump.

That makes the bill a non-starter for Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“The Senate will not waste its time considering a Democratic bill which cannot pass this chamber and which the president will not sign,” he said.
Amid the funding standoff, House Democrats are eager to use their majority to launch multiple investigations of the Trump White House and his administration as a whole.

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