WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump says he’ll sign legislation shortly to reopen shuttered government departments for three weeks — until Feb. 15.
Trump’s action would end what has become a record, 35-day partial shutdown.
Some 800,000 federal workers have had to work without pay or have been kept from doing their jobs as Trump and congressional Democrats were locked in a stalemate over the billions of dollars that Trump has demanded to build a U.S.-Mexico border wall.
Trump spoke at the White House on Friday as intensifying delays at some of the nation’s busiest airports and widespread disruptions brought new urgency to efforts to break the impasse.
2 p.m.
President Donald Trump and congressional leaders are closing in on a deal to temporarily reopen the government after the longest shutdown in U.S. history.
That’s according to five people familiar with the negotiations. They’re not authorized to reveal private discussions and are speaking on condition of anonymity.
Trump is due to make an announcement in the Rose Garden shortly.
Three of those five people say the deal would restore money for the shuttered federal agencies for three weeks, while negotiations continue on a longer-term solution.
The deal wouldn’t immediately provide a boost in money for Trump’s long-sought wall at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The negotiations are continuing, and officials say a deal won’t be locked in until Trump makes an announcement. The shutdown in its 35th day.
—Associated Press writers Jill Colvin, Catherine Lucey, Lisa Mascaro and Colleen Long
1:15 p.m.
The FBI director says the partial government shutdown is “mind-boggling, it’s short-sighted, and it’s unfair.”
In a video message to employees posted on the FBI’s website, Director Christopher Wray says he’s “about as angry as I’ve been in a long, long time.”
He says 100 percent of FBI employees are feeling financial strains from the shutdown.
Most agents in the field are working without pay and other employees are furloughed. He says he knows he can count on FBI agents to help people however they can, but he recognizes they have bills to pay.
Wray says FBI leadership should not be getting involved in political fights. But he says senior FBI officials have been advocating for employees behind the scenes