More reactions from Congressional leaders’ meeting with Trump on the government shutdown.
House speaker Mike Johnson said he wants to allow more time for negotiations, Reuters reports.
Meanwhile, vice-president JD Vance is blaming Democrats, saying Congress is heading towards a shutdown because Democrats “won’t do” the right thing, per Reuters.
“I think we’re headed to a shutdown,” Vance said, Semafor reports.
The impending shutdown will be different from past government closures because the Trump administration has threatened mass firings of federal staff, adding that it could use the lapse in funding to downsize the federal government, Reuters reports.
The Office of Personnel Management in a Monday memo said while training and onboarding of new federal employees is not allowed under the law dictating the parameters of a shutdown, the employees who oversee any firings are to continue their work. Unlike in past shutdowns, furloughed federal employees will also be allowed to use their government-issued computers to check for layoff notices in their email, according to OPM.
“This outrageous plan threatens to cause lasting damage to the country and the safety of the American people by mass firing nonpartisan, expert civil servants and potentially even eliminating government agencies,” Senator Gary Peters of Michigan, the top Democrat on the Senate committee that oversees shutdown operations, said in a letter to the administration.
British prime minister Keir Starmer on Monday welcomed Donald Trump’s efforts to end the war in Gaza with a new plan, Reuters reports.
“We call on all sides to come together and to work with the US administration to finalise this agreement and bring it into reality,” Starmer said. “Hamas should now agree to the plan and end the misery, by laying down their arms and releasing all remaining hostages.”
Vice president JD Vance just argued that it was “preposterous” that Democrats were continuing to demand an extension of healthcare funding subsidies during negotiations over a looming government shutdown.
“Now they come in here and say: ‘if you don’t give us everything we want we’re going to shut down the government.’ It’s preposterous,” Vance said after a White House meeting with Democratic congressional leaders, Semafor reported.
But Vance himself previously campaigned on exactly this kind of “preposterous” negotiating tactic, Semafor’s congressional bureau chief noted.
At today’s meeting on the government shutdown, Trump was more interested in negotiating than Republican leaders, PunchbowlNews reports:
Meanwhile, this was Democratic leaders’ message to reporters:
Democratic advocacy groups are not keen on the idea of a one-week continuing resolution to temporarily keep the government open for more negotiations, HuffPost reports:
A group representing major US airlines warned on Monday that a partial federal government shutdown could strain American aviation and slow flights, as air traffic controllers and security officers would be forced to work without pay and other functions would be halted, Reuters reports.
Airline trade group Airlines for America, which represents United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and others, warned that if funding lapses “the system may need to slow down, reducing efficiency” and impacting travelers.
Nicolás Maduro is ready to declare a state of emergency in the event of a US military attack on Venezuela, the country’s vice-president has said, warning of “catastrophic” consequences if such an onslaught materializes.
Washington claims its attacks are part of an offensive against Latin American drug cartels who are smuggling cocaine and fentanyl into the US. But many suspect they could be a prelude to a broader military intervention designed to end Maduro’s 12-year rule.
Read the full story here:
More reactions from Congressional leaders’ meeting with Trump on the government shutdown.
House speaker Mike Johnson said he wants to allow more time for negotiations, Reuters reports.
Meanwhile, vice-president JD Vance is blaming Democrats, saying Congress is heading towards a shutdown because Democrats “won’t do” the right thing, per Reuters.
“I think we’re headed to a shutdown,” Vance said, Semafor reports.
The upshot of Schumer’s meeting with Trump over the government shutdown, the senate minority leaders said: “We have very large differences,” the Huffington Post reports.
My colleague David Smith has a recap of Trump and Netanyahu’s peace proposal “press conference,” at which the leaders did not answer questions from the press:
Donald Trump and the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu have delivered an ultimatum to Hamas, warning the militant group to accept their 20-point peace plan for Gaza or face the consequences.
The two leaders met at the White House in Washington on Monday then held a joint press briefing in which they hailed their proposal as a historic breakthrough and new chapter for the Middle East.
But it was clear that Hamas had not been consulted and its position on the terms remained uncertain.
Both Trump and Netanyahu made clear that they were not offering Hamas a choice in the matter. If the group refused, Trump told reporters, “Israel would have my full backing to finish the job of destroying the threat of Hamas.
Qatar’s prime minister and Egypt’s intelligence chief presented Trump’s proposal to Hamas negotiators, who are now reviewing it in “good faith,” according to a person familiar with the matter, the Associated Press reports. The person was not authorized to comment and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Two attorneys in the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) anti-discrimination division said they were fired on Monday, a week after going public with a whistleblower report alleging that the Trump administration had dismantled efforts to combat residential segregation, my colleague Chris Stein reports.
As Trump heads to a meeting with Congressional leaders over the looming government shutdown, Axios has reported on one potential deal under discussion:
How does Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza stands out from previous ceasefire proposals? For the first time, it tries to outline the key question of how the territory will be ruled after the war, the Associated Press explains:
The proposal would effectively put the territory and its more than 2 million people under international control. It calls for deploying an international security force and installing a “Board of Peace” headed by Trump and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair to oversee Gaza’s administration and reconstruction.
Hamas faces a bitter tradeoff — the proposal demands it effectively surrender in return for uncertain gains. The militant group would have to disarm in return for an end to fighting, humanitarian aid for Palestinians, and the promise of reconstruction in Gaza – all desperately hoped for by its population.
But the proposal has only a vague promise that some day, perhaps, Palestinian statehood might be possible. For the foreseeable future, Gaza would stay under a sort of international tutelage and would remain surrounded by Israeli troops.
Senate majority leader John Thune told reporters before heading to the White House that he believes “there will be multiple opportunities to vote on keeping the government open” if they can’t do so tomorrow.
“I would expect additional opportunities,” he said.
Source: US Politics - theguardian.com
