President Donald Trump and congressional leaders reached an agreement to temporarily reopen the government and continue negotiations over the border wall on Friday, ending the country’s longest shutdown.
Standing alone in the Rose Garden, Trump said he would sign legislation funding shuttered agencies until Feb. 15 and try again to persuade lawmakers to finance his long-sought wall. The deal he reached with congressional leaders contains no new money for the wall but ends the longest shutdown in U.S. history.
First the Senate, then the House swiftly and unanimously approved the deal. Late Friday, Trump signed it into law. The administration asked federal department heads to reopen offices in a “prompt and orderly manner” and said furloughed employees can return to work.
The agreement came in the 35th day of the partial shutdown as intensifying delays at the nation’s airports and another missed payday for hundreds of thousands of federal workers brought new urgency to efforts to resolve the standoff.
“It’s good news that federal workers will be paid, and that the government will be able to fully provide the services Americans expect and deserve,” said Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Colo., in a statement after Trump’s address.
Trump and congressional leaders met Thursday afternoon after frustrations spilled over on both sides after two failed Senate votes.
“Now that the government will reopen, it is time to leave partisan corners, work together to fund border security and get back to work for the American people,” said Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., in a video statement.
Republican lawmakers continued to call for their Democratic counterparts to continue negotiations on Trump’s border wall.
“The president has made a good-faith effort to work out a solution,” Tipton said. “Now Speaker Pelosi and Sen. Schumer need to come to the table and work with him on a plan to address the challenges facing America’s border security.”
During the announcement, Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., tweeted at Trump, “If you don’t like the word ‘medieval’ to describe your wall, how about ineffective, wasteful, offensive, unpopular ...”
Bennet’s tweet comes a day after he delivered an emotional address on the Senate floor condemning the border wall and calling it “a creation of something in the president’s mind.”
In a news release Friday afternoon, Bennet said government workers “beared the brunt of this reckless government shutdown.” He called on Trump to restore lost income for the federal workers.
While Friday’s agreement provides three weeks of negotiating time, it is unclear if negotiations on the border wall will improve.
“This critical issue must be addressed, or there will likely be another stalemate in a few weeks,” Tipton’s statement read.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. Liz Weber is a student at American University in Washington, D.C., and an intern for The Journal.
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