President Donald Trump on Friday announced a deal with opposition Democrats to temporarily reopen the US federal government, shut down for a record five weeks by a bitter row over funding for a US-Mexico border wall.
“We have reached a deal to end the shutdown and reopen the federal government,” Trump said. “In a short while, I will sign a bill to open our government for three weeks, until February 15.”
US lawmakers and the White House were under intense pressure to resolve the impasse, as hundreds of thousands of federal workers headed into a second month without paychecks, and the political stalemate began to disrupt some of the nation’s busiest airports.
While staunchly defending his wall project – which he claims is needed to keep out criminals and drug traffickers – Trump made no announcement regarding his demand for $5.7 billion to fund the barrier, a key promise made to his right-wing supporters.
Instead, he said a “bipartisan conference committee” of lawmakers from the Republican-held Senate and Democrat-controlled House would set to work on the question of border security, with the issue of wall financing at the top of their agenda.
“Over the next 21 days, I expect that…
