Tag: #McConnellShutdown

House Democrats’ latest gambit for ending shutdown involves bills Republicans negotiated

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, D-MD Credit: Tom Williams, CQ Roll Call

Plan is to bring up spending bills next week that both chambers agreed to in conference last year

House Democrats plan to ramp up the pressure on Republicans to reopen the government by holding votes next week on spending bills the GOP helped negotiate.

The plan is to hold a vote on a package of six fiscal 2019 appropriations bills that were agreed to by House and Senate negotiators last year but never brought to the floor.

The package also includes language to pay federal employees who have been working without pay or who have been furloughed during the partial government shutdown.

View the complete January 17 article by Lindsey McPherson on The Roll Call website here.

DNC on Trump’s “Compromise” Deal

DNC Chair Tom Perez released the following statement after President Trump outlined a “compromise” deal to end his government shutdown:

“We are now 29 days into the longest government shutdown in American history. Federal workers are waiting in long lines at food banks to feed their children. And Donald Trump has rolled out yet another stunt to avoid responsibility and deflect blame. This isn’t a compromise; it’s a non-starter. If the president is actually interested in getting something done, he should reopen the government and restart good-faith negotiations.

“Democrats have already voted several times to reopen the government. We are ready right now to pass legislation to fund common-sense, effective border security. All Trump has to do is set aside his ego and put the American people first for once.”

IRS shutdown plan fails to quell worries

The IRS’s new contingency plan to deal with the shutdown has failed to quell concerns from Democratic lawmakers and tax professionals about the upcoming tax-filing season.

The Treasury Department’s updated shutdown plan for the IRS released Tuesday provides for 46,000 employees, or 57.4 percent of the agency’s workforce, to be working during the tax-filing season. It also confirms that the IRS will issue refunds during the shutdown.

But the plan didn’t answer all of the questions that lawmakers and tax experts have, and there are lingering doubts about how effective the IRS will be at doing its job while its employees are working without pay due to the funding lapse.

View the complete January 17 article by Naomi Jagoda on The Hill website here.

DAY 27: Trump Shutdown Costs Workers $5,000 In Wages, Pushes Economy Closer To A Recession

It’s day 27 of the Trump Shutdown, and hundreds of thousands of workers have already lost thousands of dollars in wages. Meanwhile, the economic costs of Trump’s government shutdown continue to get worse.

The Trump Shutdown has already cost hundreds of thousands of workers more than $5,000 in wages on average.

New York Times: “The 800,000 federal workers who haven’t been paid during the government shutdown have each missed more than $5,000 in wages on average so far, according to a New York Times analysis. Combined, that’s more than $200 million per workday.”

The Trump Shutdown is pushing the economy closer to a recession.

Politico: “The partial government shutdown was supposed to be a brief non-event for the economy. Now it’s starting to look like a serious crisis that could nudge the U.S. toward recession and threaten President Donald Trump’s economic message during his reelection campaign.” Continue reading “DAY 27: Trump Shutdown Costs Workers $5,000 In Wages, Pushes Economy Closer To A Recession”