Government Shutdown and recent response from Republicans

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Some GOP senators have said in interviews with CNN that they were worried about the ongoing shutdown. They are willing to re-open some major federal agencies, even if the issue of border wall funding is not settled. Significant numbers of Republican lawmakers have reportedly started to lose their patience with the U.S President Donald Trump and his border wall fight. This fight has resulted in a 19-day long partial government shutdown.

 The U.S Senator Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia also said, “I think certainly I have expressed more than a few times the frustrations with a government shutdown and how useless it is. That pressure is going to build”.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio informed CNN that he would potentially support appropriation bills allowing for specific agencies to open without Trump’s requested border deal. Rubio added that “It depends how it’s constructed. I don’t want to take away any of the president’s leverage, but I don’t think shutdowns are good for him—or for us, or for anyone. It’s certainly not good for Americans”.

Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski said that she would like to see appropriations bills allowing for the opening of the Department of Interior or the Internal Revenue Service. Other major agencies are being considered for reopening during the shutdown, including the Treasury Department, the National Park Service, and the U.S Treasury Department.

Trump’s demand of $5.7 billion to construct his long-promised border wall between the U.S and Mexico and has refused to sign a spending bill that doesn’t include the funding. But Democrats have repeatedly insisted they would not give in to the president’s demands, calling the wall immoral and wasteful. The U.S President Trump addressed the nation in a prime-time speech from the Oval Office on Tuesday evening in response to the ongoing shutdown and his next move towards constructing a border wall.