Washington, Feb 12 (UNI) US lawmakers have reopened negotiations in an effort to prevent another federal government shutdown, Senator Richard Shelby said.
On Sunday, negotiations between congressional Republicans and Democrats broke down without reaching a deal to fund the government as lawmakers face a looming deadline. Failure to reach a compromise by Friday will trigger another government shutdown just a few weeks after the longest one in history ended.
"We’ve reopened negotiations so we’re not stalled. Yesterday we were stalled," Shelby said on Monday evening. "We’ve reopened serious negotiations."
The previous partial government shutdown began in mid-December and lasted 35-days and affected some 800,000 federal workers and contractors.
US lawmakers and Trump temporarily re-opened the federal government for a three-week period until February 15 to negotiate a deal on border security. The main sticking point has been Democrats' refusal to agree to President Donald Trump’s request to include $5.7 billion in the budget to build a wall on the US-Mexico border.
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