Government Shutdown in the United States Takes Effect After Funding Bill Fails

SadaNews - The United States entered a government shutdown at midnight Washington time after the Senate failed to pass a temporary funding bill, halting federal agencies' operations and leaving hundreds of thousands of employees facing suspended salaries and services.

The American Senate rejected late Tuesday a resolution proposed by the Republican majority aimed at temporarily extending the federal funding ceiling, which prevented avoiding the shutdown starting at midnight.

President Donald Trump's allies were unable to gather the necessary votes from Democrats to reach the required threshold of 60 out of 100 members, which halted the extension of government funding after the fiscal year ended Tuesday evening, a situation not seen in the United States for six years.

The House of Representatives had earlier approved the same text, hoping that it would be approved by the Senate to reach Trump’s desk and become law before the new fiscal year began, but those efforts were unsuccessful.

Read also: Sharp disagreements between Republicans and Democrats threaten U.S. federal agency shutdown.

Approval of budget legislation requires support from 60 senators, which was not achieved in the recent vote.

A final meeting was held at the White House on Monday but resulted in no substantial progress, with Democratic minority leader Chuck Schumer announcing that "significant disagreements" remain between the two sides.

Congress failed to pass legislation to ensure the continued operation of federal agencies before midnight Tuesday, warning that Washington D.C. would start Wednesday with a new political crisis due to the government shutdown.

This shutdown will halt all non-essential operations of federal agencies, leaving hundreds of thousands of civilian employees temporarily without pay, in addition to disrupting the disbursement of many social safety net benefits.