Democrats reject Trump proposal to fund border wall and end US government shutdown
By
Niles Niemuth
21 January 2019
The longest partial federal government shutdown in American history is entering its second month with no sign of an imminent deal between Republican President Donald Trump and Congressional Democrats over funding for a wall on the US-Mexico border.
The Democrats rejected a proposal by Trump over the weekend to extend temporary protections for some undocumented immigrants in exchange for funding for increased border security, including a wall. Trump has threatened to declare a national state of emergency and deploy the military to build the wall if he is unable to reach a deal with the Democrats, who control a majority in the House of Representatives.
There are growing signs of financial distress among the 500,000 federal employees forced to work without pay and the 300,000 that have been furloughed. Without a resolution by Thursday 800,000 federal employees and approximately 500,000 contractors will miss their second full paycheck.
Free food pantries across the country have been making special appeals for donations specifically for federal employees and have held special events to deliver food supplies. A restaurant set up by World Central Kitchen to serve free meals to federal employees in Washington, D.C. served nearly 10,000 meals in its first two days of operation last week. Federal employees in Atlanta lined up in their cars Friday to receive 40,000 pounds of frozen chicken and vegetables from the Atlanta Community Food Bank. Elsewhere in the country the Foodbank of Hawaii is planning to hand out 300 emergency food bags to Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) and other federal workers in the Pacific Island state this week.
More than 1,500…