On Tuesday night, neither the White House nor Congress appear any closer to ending the partial government shutdown.
News13 Washington correspondent Mark Meredith looked at both sides and what’s being done to get some government employees back to work.
West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin says neither party is doing enough to get about 800,000 government employees back on the payroll.
“For some reason everyone has become callous about the people who are being harmed,” said Manchin (D- West Virginia).
Manchin says that’s why he met with a group of “moderate” senators, to try to find common ground. But, Manchin admits so far, no progress has been made.
Meanwhile, Senate Democrats continue to urge President Trump to give up his demands for a border wall.
“President Trump, you’re not going to win this fight with the American people. Every day it drags on, you are less popular,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D- Minority Leader).
But the president is showing no signs of backing down.
Several house Republicans joined the president for lunch Tuesday. Afterwards, they told reporters GOP lawmakers are willing to keep fighting for the wall.
“We’ve got to do everything we can to make sure the president gets a chance to negotiate a plan,” said Rep. Rodney Davis (R- Illinois).
There are new signs the shutdown will go on for at least another week.
Both house and senate leaders are making plans to cancel a break scheduled for next week. But, interest groups representing government workers say people can’t wait much longer to get paid.
The VFW says it’s helping hundreds of coast guard personnel stay afloat.
“We have veterans and coast guard members that are having trouble paying their mortgages, putting food on the table, paying their car payments,” said B.J. Lawrence, with Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Congress has already agreed to back-pay for the service members. But, those checks will not go out until the shutdown ends.
