NEW YORK -- Wall Street stocks jumped Tuesday as President Donald Trump downplayed the chance of another government shutdown and said he could delay new tariffs on Chinese imports.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average snapped a 4-day losing streak, soaring more than 370 points to close up 1.5 percent at 25,425.76.
The broader S&P 500 rose 1.3 percent, closing at 2,744.73, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index also added 1.5 percent, closing at 7,414.62
The US president, while not ruling anything out, suggested his latest funding fight with congressional Democrats over border security would not result in another shutdown.
Trump told reporters he was not pleased with a deal by bipartisan lawmakers to offer nearly $1.4 billion for a barrier along the southern US frontier -- far less than the $5.7 billion he initially sought.
"I can't say I'm happy, I can't say I'm thrilled," Trump said. But he also told a Cabinet meeting in the White House: "I don't think you're going to see a shutdown."
During a back-and-forth with reporters at the same meeting, Trump also said he would consider extending the deadline for a trade deal with China beyond March 1.
"If we're close to a deal, where we think we can make a real deal... I could see myself letting that slide for a little while," Trump said.
The comments came as the third round of trade negotiations were set to resume in Beijing to avert more than doubling tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports.
Stocks were in positive territory prior to Trump's remarks, but added to gains.
"We got good news on two hot-button issues," said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Cresset Capital Management.
Tuesday's gains were fairly broad-based, with Caterpillar, DowDuPont, Intel, 3M and UnitedHealth Group among the Dow members rising more than two percent.
Cosmetics company Coty shot up 12.5 percent after JAB Holding Company proposed buying up to 150 million shares, raising its stake to about 60 percent of the company.
JAB manages the fortune of Germany's Reimann family.
Gilead Sciences fell 3.3 percent after reporting disappointing clinical results of a treatment for cirrhosis.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
WASHINGTON - US budget talks have hit another impasse over immigration, a key Republican negotiator said Sunday, raising the prospect of a second government shutdown if no agreement is reached by this week's deadline.
"I think the talks are stalled right now," Richard Shelby, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said on Fox News Sunday.
The deadline for an agreement on funding to keep the government open is Friday, raising the specter of a repeat of the 35-day partial shutdown that ended January 25 -- the longest in US history.
Negotiators had been optimistic Friday an agreement would be reached that includes some funds for a border "barrier," although less than the $5.6 billion US President Donald Trump has demanded.
Shelby blamed Democrats for the latest snag, saying they wanted to cap the number of beds at immigration detention centers.
"Time is ticking away but we got some problems with the Democrats dealing with ICE," he said, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Trump himself, who Monday hosts a rally of supporters on the Texas border at El Paso, said Democratic negotiators were being hamstrung by their party leadership.
"They are offering very little money for the desperately needed Border Wall & now, out of the blue, want a cap on convicted violent felons to be held in detention!," he tweeted.
He went on to suggest Democrats were ready to let talks collapse to distract from unfavorable headlines including a racism scandal engulfing the party leadership in Virginia.
"I actually believe they want a Shutdown. They want a new subject!," Trump said.
Senator Jon Tester, a Democrat, expressed cautious optimism that a government shutdown would be averted.
"We need to keep our eyes on this but I'm very hopeful, not positive, but very hopeful we can come to an agreement," he said.
White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, meanwhile, said a government shutdown is "still technically on the table."
"There's going to be a lot of different moving pieces so I'm not in a position to say the president will absolutely sign or will not sign," he said.
Trump "cannot sign everything they put in front of him, if there will be some things that simply we couldn't agree to," he said.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
WASHINGTON -- The five-week government shutdown subtracted $11 billion from the US economy, about twice the amount President Donald Trump sought to fund a border wall, an independent congressional body said Monday.
However, all but $3 billion, or 0.02 percent of GDP, will eventually be recovered as the government resumes operations, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said in a report.
The estimate suggested the damages from the political brawl in Washington were significant but stopped short of the far worse harm that could have occurred had it been allowed to continue.
"Underlying those effects on the overall economy are much more significant effects on individual businesses and workers," the report said.
"Some of those private-sector entities will never recoup that lost income."
Growth in subsequent quarters this year should see a small, temporary bounce, compensating for the losses in the final quarter of 2018 and the start of 2019, the report said.
The partial shutdown, the longest in US history, left some 800,000 federal workers either working without pay or furloughed although they are due to receive back pay this week.
But government contractors, including hourly workers, may not be compensated for lost income.
With public services including aviation safety beginning to buckle under the strain of withheld wages and suspended operations, Trump agreed Friday to reopen the federal government temporarily but with no additional funding for the wall.
In a signature pledge from his 2016 campaign, Trump claimed the barrier would stem illegal immigration and drug trafficking, a claim Democrats have rejected.
TEMPORARY AGREEMENT
Funding for the government is due to run out by mid-February and Trump told The Wall Street Journal on Sunday the odds were below 50 percent that lawmakers would reach a deal on border security he would find acceptable.
The shutdown underscored the myriad but frequently unseen ways that the federal government greases the wheels of the economy: farm subsidies, mortgage approvals, tax refunds, permits for oil drilling, food safety inspections, all were temporarily interrupted.
And the CBO report said its estimate did not reflect indirect costs which were difficult to quantify but which were "probably becoming more significant" as the government freeze went on.
The halt to permits and government loan approval was "probably beginning to lead firms to postpone investment and hiring decisions."
Airports in Miami and New York operated at reduced capacity causing some flights to be grounded due to shortages of air traffic controllers and transportation safety agents, bringing home the direct threat to normal commerce as the shutdown dragged on.
Trump was widely seen as having lost the standoff with congressional Democrats as polling showed most voters blamed the president for the impasse while hard-right commentators accused him of capitulation.
The president has threatened to use emergency powers to build the wall if he does not get his way with Congress. However, observers say this would likely face immediate legal challenges.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
TOKYO -- Asian stocks advanced on Monday as Wall Street rallied after a deal was announced to reopen the US government following a prolonged shutdown that had shaken investor sentiment.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan climbed 0.2 percent.
South Korea's KOSPI edged up 0.2 percent, New Zealand stocks were up a touch, while Japan's Nikkei bucked the trends and eased 0.2 percent. Australian financial markets were shut for their 'Australia Day' holiday.
Facing mounting pressure, US President Donald Trump agreed on Friday to temporarily end a 35-day-old partial US government shutdown without getting the $5.7 billion he had demanded from Congress for a border wall.
In response Wall Street rallied broadly on Friday as investors were heartened to see the back of the longest US government shutdown in history.
The shutdown had left investors anxious and frustrated as it came at a time of heightened worries over slowing global growth, signs of stress in corporate earnings and a still unresolved Sino-US trade war.
"The rise in the broader stock markets looks to keep going. The US government reopening is definitely a plus for market sentiment," said Soichiro Monji, senior economist at Daiwa SB Investments.
"There are still potential risk factors, such as the US-China trade row and Brexit," he said.
In the currency market, the pound stood tall, hovering near a three-month high of $1.3218 set on Friday on the back of optimism that Britain can avoid a no-deal Brexit.
Britain is set to leave the European Union on March 29, but the country’s members of parliament remain far from agreeing a divorce deal. That has kept markets, worried about the possibility of a disorderly Brexit, on edge for much of the last several weeks.
The euro was also on the front foot against the sagging dollar.
The single currency was 0.05 percent higher at $1.1412 after gaining 0.9 percent on Friday, paring the losses from earlier last week on dovish-sounding comments by European Central Bank President Mario Draghi.
The dollar was slightly lower at 109.48 yen following mild losses at the end of last week.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield was little changed at 2.754 percent after popping up 4 basis points on Friday in the wake of surging US shares.
US crude oil futures were down 0.55 percent at $53.39 per barrel, losing some momentum after two sessions of gains.
Oil prices rose towards the end of last week as political turmoil in Venezuela threatened to tighten crude supply, with the United States signalling it may impose sanctions on exports from the South American nation.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
WASHINGTON D.C. - President Donald Trump struck a deal with Democrats to reopen the US government Friday, but threatened a fresh shutdown or a resort to emergency powers next month if Congress does not provide border wall funding.
"If we don't get a fair deal from Congress, the government either shuts down on February 15th again, or I will use the powers afforded to me under the laws and Constitution of the United States to address this emergency," Trump said in an address in the White House Rose Garden.
Trump has spoken for weeks about using his presidential authority to declare an emergency on the US border with Mexico that would allow him to fund the controversial project through financial sources that do not need congressional approval.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
WASHINGTON - Two competing measures to end the partial US government shutdown fell short in the Senate on Thursday, as lawmakers explored an option to end a month-long impasse with the White House and fund government operations for 3 weeks while talks continue.
A bill backed by Republican President Donald Trump to end the shutdown by funding the wall he wants to build on the US-Mexico border and a separate bill supported by Democrats to reopen shuttered agencies without such funding did not get the votes required to advance in the 100-member chamber.
Immediately following the failed effort, Democratic and Republican senators spoke on the Senate floor and urged quick passage of a 3-week, stopgap funding bill to end the partial government shutdown for now. Some Democrats pledged to support more border security funding than was included in the Democrats’ bill that was blocked in the Senate on Thursday.
But the White House issued a warning. A 3-week funding bill would "only work if there is a large down payment on the wall," spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in a statement.
Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen said a measure to temporarily reopen shuttered federal agencies would be unveiled later on Thursday to end the 34-day shutdown, which was triggered by Trump's demand for money to fund a wall.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said he had spoken to Trump about a three-week funding bill.
"All of us believe if we have 3 weeks with the government open that we could find a way forward to produce a bill that he would sign, that would be good for everybody in the country," Graham said on the Senate floor. “To my Democratic friends, money for a barrier is required to get this deal done."
Trump has touted Republican unity during the longest shutdown in US history.
But in a sign of cracks in that resolve, or a desire for compromise, 6 Republican senators voted with Democrats on their measure to temporarily reopen government agencies without money for Trump’s wall. They included freshman Senator Mitt Romney, his party’s 2012 presidential nominee.
"Democrats have said they're not willing to negotiate unless the government's open. Well they tried their effort. I voted for it. It didn't happen. Now they've got to negotiate," Romney said.
'LET THEM EAT CAKE?'
House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, told reporters earlier she was willing to meet with Trump to discuss the shutdown.
Her comments came a day after she essentially withdrew an invitation for Trump to give his State of the Union in the House chamber next Tuesday, saying that would not happen until the shutdown ended. Trump, who had planned to come despite the shutdown and considered giving the speech at another venue, conceded late on Wednesday and said he would deliver the speech in the House in the "near future."
Trump has said he wants $5.7 billion for a border barrier, opposed by Democrats, as part of any legislation to fund about a quarter of the federal government for the year. That demand, and Democrats' refusal to meet it, has sparked a shutdown of agencies that had not already received federal funding, leaving 800,000 federal workers, as well as private contractors, without pay and struggling to make ends meet, the effects on government services and the economy reverberating nationwide.
US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Thursday urged furloughed federal workers to seek loans to pay their bills while adding in a CNBC interview that he could not understand why they were having trouble getting by.
Pelosi denounced the comments.
"Is this the 'Let them eat cake' kind of attitude or 'Call your father for money?' or 'This is character building for you?'" Pelosi asked at a news conference.
She said she did not understand why Ross would make the comment "as hundreds of thousands of men and women are about to miss a second paycheck tomorrow."
Trump responded to Pelosi, without mentioning Ross.
"Nancy just said she 'just doesn’t understand why?' Very simply, without a Wall it all doesn’t work. Our Country has a chance to greatly reduce Crime, Human Trafficking, Gangs and Drugs. Should have been done for decades. We will not Cave!" he said in a tweet.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll last week found more than half of Americans blamed Trump for the shutdown even as he has sought to shift blame to Democrats after saying last month he would be "proud" to close the government for border security.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
WASHINGTON - The US Internal Revenue Service is due to start sifting through an avalanche of annual tax returns on Monday, with a workforce hard-pressed by the partial government shutdown and Congress uncertain how to avoid chaos for taxpayers.
In what could be a politically explosive chapter in the shutdown saga that already is 34 days long, analysts said at least one in 10 taxpayers could face problems with their returns due to the IRS funding shortfall. The analysts said the situation may worsen if the impasse drags on even longer.
The annual tax filing season for Americans to file their 2018 returns is scheduled to open on Jan. 28 and run through April 15, the annual filing deadline. The IRS has designated more than 46,000 employees, or nearly 60 percent of its workforce, to work without pay on jobs such as staffing taxpayer help lines and processing tax returns and refunds.
"People have figured out how explosive it could be, in terms of not being able to pay down Christmas debt," said Representative Richard Neal, Democratic chairman of the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, which oversees tax policy.
"But when you call back 40,000 people arbitrarily, without any guarantee of remuneration, and ask them to pay for gas and things of that sort, their lives aren't getting any easier because of it," Neal told reporters.
Lawmakers on Neal's committee hoped to learn details about the situation at a hearing with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin this week. But it was canceled by Neal after Mnuchin, a top adviser to President Donald Trump, declined to attend. Neal said he would propose more dates for Mnuchin to consider and hoped a hearing could be set for as early as next week.
"The fact that they've called people back is an indication of a chaotic situation," Representative Bill Pascrell, a committee Democrat, said of the IRS. "It's not just getting returns back to people in time, but getting the taxes reviewed in time. That's very, very important."
Representative Kevin Brady, the panel's top Republican, said lawmakers need to hear about the shutdown's impact on the IRS from the administration. "This is a bipartisan area of interest, to make sure this tax-filing season goes well," Brady told reporters.
The IRS issued a statement saying it continues to prepare for next week's start of the tax-filing season by recalling employees.
Most taxpayers filing electronically or using professional preparers should not face major problems, but delays could await people with returns flagged for potential issues and lower-income filers who use IRS assistance, analysts said.
There could also be problems within the agency as it tries to guide taxpayers through a new tax policy landscape created by Trump's sweeping 2017 tax overhaul.
"The longer you make people work without paying them, the more problems you're going to have," said Howard Gleckman, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center think tank.
The National Treasury Employees Union, a union that represents IRS employees and has sued in court to prevent the government from forcing them back to work without pay, said increasing numbers of workers are facing financial hardship as bills mount.
Representative Vern Buchanan, a Florida Republican, said he expects Trump and Congress to reopen the government within the next week or so. "If it doesn't, we're going to have to find a way to work with people financially, because there are a lot of people living paycheck to paycheck," Buchanan said.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump intensified his war of words with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Wednesday after she effectively blocked him from delivering his annual address in Congress during the government shutdown, now in its 33rd day.
The growing acrimony came on the eve of a pair of US Senate votes that appear unlikely to end the longest-ever shutdown -- and as furloughed federal workers vented their fury on Capitol Hill.
The president and his Republicans still have the better part of a week to resolve differences with Democrats and get federal operations going again, allowing his State of the Union speech to proceed.
But the prospects were dim, with the Senate votes -- one on Trump's plan that includes money for his border wall, the other by Democrats seeking to reopen government before negotiating border security -- bound to fail on Thursday.
Traditionally the president's annual speech, scheduled for next Tuesday, is delivered before a joint session of Congress in the ornate chamber of the House of Representatives.
In an effort to force the hand of Pelosi, who had already urged Trump to reschedule due to shutdown-related security shortcomings, the president wrote to her saying it would be "so very sad for our Country if the State of the Union were not delivered on time, on schedule, and very importantly, on location!"
Pelosi, who has become the face of Democratic opposition to Trump in Congress, pushed back, informing the president that the House would not authorize the speech in the chamber.
"Again, I look forward to welcoming you to the House on a mutually agreeable date for this address when government has been opened," said Pelosi.
The rejection sent Washington's establishment into uncharted territory, and all but forced Trump to retreat over his address.
"The State of the Union speech has been cancelled by Nancy Pelosi because she doesn't want to hear the truth" about border security, Trump told reporters, adding that he is considering an "alternative" for the speech.
"We'll be announcing what we'll do," he said.
'WILL WORK FOR PAY'
The shutdown, which has seen some 800,000 federal employees left without pay for a month, was triggered by Trump's refusal to sign funding bills in December.
This was in retaliation for the Democrats' refusal to approve funds for extending walls along the US-Mexico border.
With the closure of about one quarter of federal agencies affecting millions of Americans, hundreds of government workers who have not been paid in weeks used the power of protest to publicize their plight, peacefully occupying a congressional office building for several hours.
Some held posters or paper plates with messages including "Will work for pay" and "Do your job -- so Americans can do theirs."
And with no solution in sight, they were bracing for Friday, when they expect to miss their second paycheck in a row.
Trump says he will not reopen government before his wall funding comes through. But he also pointed the finger and Pelosi and her caucus.
"It's really a shame, what's happening with the Democrats," he said. "They've become radicalized."
The votes in the Republican-controlled Senate have the potential to break the impasse, but since both need to clear a 60-vote threshold to advance in the 100-member chamber, their passage is unlikely.
Government shutdowns are a disruptive political ritual that have occurred in various administrations and are almost unique to the American system.
This one is the longest on record, and has left a broad swath of federal workers unpaid -- among them airport security officers, FBI agents, museum workers, US Coast Guard personnel, and Environmental Protection Agency personnel charged with monitoring toxic chemicals or other pollutants.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump bitterly attacked top Democrat Nancy Pelosi on Sunday and she again insisted that he end the government shutdown before border security talks can begin, but there were hints of possible movement.
Trump lashed out on Twitter a day after Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives, dismissed as a "non-starter" his offer to extend temporary protection to about a million immigrants in return for $5.7 billion for the wall he wants on the Mexican border to fulfill a signature campaign promise.
Government shutdowns are a disruptive political ritual that have occurred in various administrations and are almost unique to the American system. But this one is the longest on record. It has left about 800,000 federal workers unpaid -- among them airport security officers, FBI agents, museum workers, and Coast Guard members.
"Nancy Pelosi has behaved so irrationally & has gone so far to the left that she has now officially become a Radical Democrat," the president tweeted. "She is so petrified of the 'lefties' in her party that she has lost control."
It was Trump's most direct attack on Pelosi since the partial government shutdown began, and appeared to reflect a mounting sense of frustration.
Pointedly ignoring his personal comments, Pelosi on Twitter emphasized the need to end the impasse, which has inflicted increasing pain after one month, with some government employees having to turn to food banks or local charities to get by.
"Reopen the government, let workers get their paychecks and then we can discuss how we can come together to protect the border. #EndTheShutdown," she tweeted.
'GOOD-FAITH COMPROISE'
While Pelosi and other Democrats dismissed Trump's offer, Republicans insisted that it represented actual movement by the president.
Vice President Mike Pence, who has been leading the administration's contacts with Congress, said the Senate would put the proposal to a vote as early as Tuesday. He called it "a good-faith compromise."
The planned vote also reflects a shift by Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell. He insisted previously that he would not take up any shutdown bill unless both Trump and Democratic leaders backed it.
"In a very real sense, what President Trump did here was he set the table for a deal," Pence said on "Fox News Sunday."
The bill's fate was far from clear. Republicans hope to lure the votes of a few Democrats from Trump-friendly states to reach the 60 votes needed, but they may lose some hard-line conservatives in the process.
MOST BLAME REPUBLICANS
The Trump administration -- increasingly blamed by Americans for the shutdown -- is trying to balance demands of those hard-liners and Democrats who adamantly oppose spending the $5.7 billion Trump wants for a wall.
Trump has regularly warned of what he says is a serious criminal threat from undocumented migrants entering the country, which is grappling with a surge in arrivals by families and children who say they are fleeing poverty and violence in Central America.
Democrats have offered more than $2 billion for a range of other border-security measures.
They assailed Trump's new offer as cynical, noting that it was the president who -- by moving earlier to end the DACA program protecting 700,000 young immigrants and to expel about 300,000 others in a separate program -- had placed in jeopardy many of those for whom he now offers temporary protection.
But anti-immigrant voices also attacked Trump's offer as tantamount to amnesty for the undocumented -- a toxic concept for many conservatives.
"No, Amnesty is not a part of my offer. It is a 3 year extension of DACA," Trump said in another tweet. DACA was former president Barack Obama's program to shield undocumented immigrants who entered the country as children.
Trump said that there would be "no big push" to remove the 11 million people in the country illegally, before warning: 'but be careful, Nancy!"
His immigration crackdown has not stanched the influx of migrants, and a new group of about 400 Hondurans -- the fourth since October 13 -- headed north on Saturday, officials there said.
Still, as the costs of the US shutdown mounted, both sides in the standoff appeared to be casting about cautiously for a road ahead.
"The vote this week (in the Senate) is not to pass the bill," said Senator James Lankford, a Republican, "It's to open up and say, can we debate this? Can we amend it? Can we make changes? Let's find a way to get the government open."
Representative Bennie Thompson, a Democrat who chairs the Homeland Security Committee, said that "I would not rule out a wall in certain circumstances."
He suggested that Democrats were amenable to negotiating if Trump would stop demonizing the party and its leaders and provide assurances that he would not suddenly shift positions.
"The notion that we have come from a (focus on a) wall to some other thing is moving it along," he told ABC's "This Week," "but we have to sit down and talk."
Representative Tulsi Gabbard, who plans to seek the presidency in 2020, told CNN it was urgent that both sides "come together and have a real conversation and hash out the differences."
But Representative James Clyburn, the third-ranking House Democrat, insisted that the government must first be reopened.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
WASHINGTON - Her husband is one of thousands of federal employees who haven't been paid due to the US government shutdown -- but a Virginia woman snagged her family some extra income, winning $100,000 and a car in the state lottery.
"I cried. I couldn't believe it," Carrie Walls said, recalling the moment she realized she had won, the Virginia Lottery said in a news release.
Along with the $100,000, Walls -- who lives in Ashburn, a suburban town near Washington -- also bagged a Ford Expedition SUV.
Around 800,000 federal employees have been on mandatory leave or working without pay for 24 days as US President Donald Trump and Congress wrangle over funding for a wall on the southern border.
On Friday, Congress voted to guarantee federal employees retroactive pay once the shutdown ends.
tu/ska/jm
source: news.abs-cbn.com
WASHINGTON - The US government shutdown on Saturday became the longest in history and is taking a growing bite out of the world's largest economy with each passing day, economists say.
While most of the 21 "lapses" in government spending since 1976 left barely a scratch on economic growth, the length of this shutdown makes it harder to say just how bad the impact could get.
"It's not a hard stretch to say that initially it's smaller and then it expands, the pain starts to widen," Beth Ann Bovino, chief US economist at S&P Global Ratings, told AFP. "Think of it as a butterfly effect."
With about a quarter of the federal workforce affected, the shutdown is currently squeezing an estimated $1.2 billion a week out of the economy, Bovino said, but that figure could grow if it drags on.
At the current rate, within 2 weeks it will have cost America more than the $5.7 billion US President Donald Trump is demanding for a wall on the border with Mexico, the dispute with Congress that led to the failure to pass funding for government operations.
Following extended closures in 1995 and 2013, the US economy continued to grow while stock markets mainly went sideways.
And GDP growth lost in one quarter can rebound in the next as the government springs back to life and workers recoup lost salaries. But some losses can never be recovered.
In myriad but often unseen ways, the $4 trillion federal budget is felt in the daily lives of all Americans, well beyond the 800,000 government workers now going without pay -- many of whom missed their first paychecks on Friday.
Switching off even a part of the government means that life force quickly begins to bleed away.
Payments to farmers and poor families, craft beer labels, food inspections and economic data all have fallen victim to the budget impasse.
Meanwhile, tax refunds and borrower income verifications crucial to the mortgage industry were briefly up in the air with billions at stake.
"The tentacles start to touch many avenues of life and that's a very sad thing," Bovino said.
US Coast Guard cutters, their crews working without pay, on Monday began icebreaking at commercial ports in the frigid waters of Great Lakes near the Canadian border so local steel mills can remain supplied with iron ore.
Meanwhile, farmers cannot collect aid payments designed to help ease the pain caused by Trump's trade war with China.
HURTING THE POOREST MOST
Small Business Administration loans to help mom-and-pop businesses trying to invest, hire and grow have been delayed.
There are no government loans for seeds or cattle feed and none of the regular Agriculture Department data about crop yields and commodity prices that farmers depend on to plan for the coming year.
Permits from some oil and gas drilling -- which feeds into GDP calculations -- are delayed.
Bloomberg estimates that government contractors are losing $200 million a day, cutting revenues for defense industry giants like Boeing, General Dynamics and Leidos.
Tourism at the country's 400 national parks normally generates a reported $18 million a day, but with some parks unattended and many services halted, local restaurants, hotels and shops are losing customers.
Government assistance to feed the poorest Americans is funded through next month only.
None of this includes the hardships felt by the 380,000 federal workers who have been furloughed or the 420,000 who are deemed "essential" but are working without pay.
They owe an estimated $438 million a month in rent and mortgage payments, according to the real estate firm Zillow.
Around the Washington region, home to about 20 percent of the federal work force, restaurants are sitting empty, taxis are idled and traffic increasingly moves with eerie ease along the capital's choked boulevards.
Yingrui Huang, an engineer for a defense contractor at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, told AFP his company is normally at work building weather satellites and telescopes for the government but is shuttered until further notice.
To fight boredom, he is now driving for the mobile ride hailing service Lyft but said he was most concerned hourly employees like janitors, cafeteria workers and secretaries.
"Their salaries are definitely lower than most of the engineering staff. They don't get the limelight. We don't think about them," he said.
Economic research on the last major shutdown in October 2013 found many federal workers were largely able to avoid sinking into debt -- delaying mortgage payments and shifting balances between credit cards.
But that shutdown lasted for barely 2 weeks -- one pay cycle -- and lawmakers at the time had quickly promised workers would receive back pay.
"It's possible that the effects will be greater for this shutdown," University of Chicago economist Constantine Yannelis, who studied the 2013 shutdown, told AFP.
"The longer a shutdown lasts, the more persistent a change in habits you could see."
source: news.abs-cbn.com
WASHINGTON - Hundreds of furloughed federal employees chanting "We want our pay!" marched on the White House on Thursday, the 20th day of a partial government shutdown over US President Donald Trump's demand for border wall funding.
"Stop the shutdown!" protesters shouted in the bitter cold at the union-organized demonstration that started at the AFL-CIO headquarters and ended in front of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, where they hoisted signs reading "Trump: End the Shutdown" and "Not a strike - we want to work."
Some 800,000 federal government employees have been ordered to stay home or work without pay during the shutdown brought on by a standoff between Trump and Democrats in Congress over Trump's demand for $5.7 billion to build a wall on the southern US border with Mexico.
Trump, in a 2016 presidential campaign promise, repeatedly vowed that Mexico would pay for the wall. But he has said he will not sign any bill to reopen the government that does not provide wall funding.
Elaine Suriano, 62, a furloughed scientist with the Environmental Protection Agency, said she would have to dip into her retirement savings if the shutdown continued and robbed her of yet another paycheck.
"It's just clear that this administration doesn't understand normal people and real life or they wouldn't do this," Suriano said.
In its third week, the shutdown of about a quarter of the federal government is the second longest since the mid-1970s. Trump has said it could continue for months or even years.
Many furloughed federal workers have turned to online fundraising outlets such as GoFundMe.com to help cover expenses from food to utility bills.
Mathew Crichton, 32, a furloughed Peace Corps employee, said uncertainty over how long the shutdown will last made it impossible to budget for food, lodging and other needs.
"It could go on another day, and it could go on more weeks. It could go on for months," Crichton said. "It's really a shame that I'm ready to go to work. I'm able to go to work and I can't." Protesters, many wearing neon green vests reading, "I am a worker. I demand a voice," on Thursday demanded the government be reopened, separate from any debate over wall funding.
Smaller protests across the country – from Palm Beach, Florida, to New York City - had similar demands. In Ogden, Utah, dozens of out-of-work federal employees gathered to urge an end to the shutdown, some holding signs reading “I am TSA. I am furloughed. I am not a pawn. I’m a voter” and “800,000 unemployed. Hurts our family and our economy.”
Trump was not at the White House when the protesters arrived, having traveled to the US-Mexico border in McAllen, Texas.
The president has said he has the right to declare a national emergency if no deal with Congress can be reached on funding the border wall project.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
WASHINGTON - The U.S. House of Representatives, where Democrats now hold a majority, approved legislation on Thursday to end a partial government shutdown that began nearly two weeks ago at several federal agencies and fund the Department of Homeland Security through Feb. 8.
Under the bills, the departments of State, Commerce, Agriculture, Labor, Treasury and other agencies would be funded through Sept. 30, the end of the current fiscal year.
Hours before the vote, the White House said advisers to President Donald Trump would recommend that he veto the measure if Congress passed it without any additional money for Trump's proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The 2019-2020 Congress convened with roughly a quarter of the federal government closed, affecting 800,000 employees, in a shutdown triggered by Trump's demand last month for the money for a U.S.-Mexican border wall - opposed by Democrats - as part of any legislation funding government agencies.
The House earlier on Thursday had formally picked Nancy Pelosi, a veteran Democratic lawmaker and liberal from San Francisco, as its speaker, beginning her second stint in one of Washington's most powerful jobs. She is the only woman ever to serve as speaker and will preside over the most diverse U.S. House in history, including a record number of women and Latinos.
The two-part Democratic package includes a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security at current levels through Feb. 8, providing $1.3 billion for border fencing and $300 million for other border security items including technology and cameras.
The second part would fund the other federal agencies that are now unfunded including the Departments of Agriculture, Interior, Transportation, Commerce and Justice, through Sept. 30, the end of the current fiscal year.
"We're not doing a wall. It has nothing to do with politics. It has to do with a wall is an immorality between countries. It's an old way of thinking. It isn't cost effective," Pelosi told reporters late on Thursday.
As speaker, Pelosi now is situated to lead Democratic opposition to Trump's agenda and carry out investigations of his administration following two years during which congressional Republicans largely acquiesced to the president.
Trump on Thursday made an unannounced appearance in the White House briefing room to make the case for the border wall, accompanied by members of a union that represents border patrol agents that endorsed him for president in 2016. He congratulated Pelosi on her selection as speaker and said: "Hopefully we're going to work together."
"The wall - you can call it a barrier, you can call it whatever you want - but essentially we need protection in our country," Trump told reporters, without taking questions.
Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell signaled that the Democratic legislation had no future in the Senate, calling it "political theater, not productive lawmaking."
"Let's not waste the time," he said on the Senate floor. "Let's not get off on the wrong foot with House Democrats using their platform to produce political statements rather than serious solutions."
McConnell said the Senate would not take up any proposal that did not have a real chance of getting Trump's signature.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
WASHINGTON -- Democratic and Republican congressional leaders emerged from a meeting with President Donald Trump on Wednesday giving no indication of progress toward ending a partial government shutdown in its 12th day as Trump held fast to his demand for $5 billion in funding for a border wall.
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters that Trump asked congressional leaders to return to the White House on Friday for more talks aimed at ending the shutdown.
Democrats said they would proceed with plans to hold votes on Thursday, when they formally take control of the House of Representatives from Trump's fellow Republicans, on legislation that would end the shutdown without providing the wall money sought by Trump. The White House has called the two-part package a "non-starter."
"We're asking the president to open up government," Democrat Nancy Pelosi, the presumptive incoming House speaker, told reporters outside the White House after top lawmakers met with Trump and his homeland security officials behind closed doors.
Trump's demand for $5 billion in funding for a wall along the US-Mexico border triggered the shutdown affecting about a quarter of the federal government and 800,000 federal workers. Before meeting with lawmakers, Trump said the shutdown would last for "as long as it takes" as he pushes for wall money - fiercely opposed by Democrats - as part of any legislation to reopen agencies shuttered when their funding lapsed on Dec. 22.
"It could be a long time," Trump told reporters during a Cabinet meeting, "or it could be quickly."
"We know that we have a challenge along the border," McCarthy said. "We want to solve that issue. We want to make sure we open this government up. And I think at the end of the day, the president, listening to him, he wants to solve this as well."
Pelosi noted that the legislation being presented in the House had previously won backing in the Senate, which will remain in Republican hands in the new 2019-2020 Congress that convenes on Thursday.
SITUATION ROOM
Trump's meeting with lawmakers was held in the White House Situation Room, generally used for high-level security concerns such as military planning.
The House legislation sets up the first major battle of the new Congress between House Democrats and Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has said Senate Republicans will not approve a spending measure Trump does not support.
Trump made the border wall a key part of his presidential campaign. Before meeting with the Democrats, Trump called the border a "sieve," rebutted Pelosi's complaint that a wall was immoral, provided an estimate of the US illegal immigrant population far higher than the figures most experts cite and made disputed comments about progress toward building a wall.
The visit by Pelosi and Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer was their first to the White House since their sharp exchange with Trump in the Oval Office on Dec. 11 during which the president told them he would be "proud to shut down the government for border security."
He has since blamed Democrats for the shutdown.
Schumer said he hoped Trump and his Republican allies would not use the shutdown and the affected government workers as "hostages" to try to extract wall funding. Schumer said Trump "could not give a good answer" for his opposition to the House Democratic legislation that would provide stopgap funding for the Department of Homeland Security and funding for the rest of the current fiscal year for the remaining shuttered agencies to provide time to reach a border security compromise.
The $5 billion Trump is seeking would cover only a portion of the money needed for a border wall, a project estimated to cost about $23 billion. Trump had said Mexico would pay for the wall, but Mexico refused.
Trump said he was open to working on a path to legal status for hundreds of thousands of young illegal immigrants known as Dreamers who were brought into the country as children, pointing toward a potential broader deal with Democrats that could resolve the shutdown.
Federal courts have blocked Trump's effort to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, begun in 2012 under Democratic former President Barack Obama, that protected the Dreamers from deportation and gave them work permits.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
WASHINGTON- The US government partial shutdown was set to stretch deep into next week after legislators failed Thursday to make a breakthrough in the row over President Donald Trump's demand for a US-Mexico border wall.
After convening for just a few minutes following the official Christmas break, a still nearly empty Senate adjourned, deciding to renew budget deliberations only next Wednesday, the last day of the current Republican-controlled Congress.
That would take the government shutdown, already on its sixth day, into 12.
Both sides have dug in, with Democrats refusing to provide $5 billion for Trump's border wall project and the president insisting he will not fully fund the government unless he gets the money.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders accused Democrats of "openly choosing to keep our government closed to protect illegal immigrants rather than the American people."
She said Trump "will not sign a proposal that does not first prioritize our country's safety and security."
As long as the wall debate holds up approval of a wider spending bill, about 800,000 federal employees are not getting salaries and non-essential parts of the government are unable to function.
Trump made clear he does not intend to give way first.
In a tweet Thursday, he once more accused Democrats of wanting to encourage illegal immigrants, "an Open Southern Border and the large-scale crime that comes with such stupidity!"
"Need to stop Drugs, Human Trafficking, Gang Members & Criminals from coming into our Country," he said in another tweet, also lambasting "Democrat obstruction of the needed Wall."
Opponents, including some in his Republican party, accuse the president of exaggerating the danger from illegal immigration for his own political gain.
"No end in sight to the President's government shutdown," Dick Durbin, a senior Democratic senator, tweeted.
"He's taken our government hostage over his outrageous demand for a $5 billion border wall that would be both wasteful and ineffective."
ECONOMY WORRIES
Partial government shutdowns are not an unusual weapon in Washington budget negotiations, where party divides make cooperation a rarity.
But the rancor has spiraled under Trump's abrasive administration and is set to go even higher after January 3 when the Democrats take over the House of Representatives, following their midterm election victory.
The mess has contributed to worries over the outlook for the US economy in 2019, following a surging 2018 performance.
The stock market has plummeted in recent days, before a record recovery on Wednesday, under a variety of factors including Trump's barrage of criticism against the independent Federal Reserve.
Continuing the see-saw performance, Wall Street opened sharply lower Thursday but ended solidly higher on bargain hunting.
CHILDREN SUFFER
Large sections of the nearly 2,000-mile (3,200 kilometer) border with Mexico are already divided by fences and other barriers.
But immigrants -- some fleeing danger and others just looking for jobs -- continue to cross illegally.
Trump's critics say that he is trampling over legally protected asylum rights and argue that resources should be channeled into higher-tech alternatives to a wall.
Managing the flow of illegal border crossers has been complicated by a shift from single men to more vulnerable families, including small children.
Two youngsters from Guatemala have died while in custody of US authorities this month and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said that "extraordinary protective measures" were required to handle the flow.
US Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan warned Wednesday that the agency was unable to cope with the thousands of arrivals, as most facilities were built decades ago for men arriving alone.
"We need help from Congress. We need to budget for medical care and mental health care for children in our facilities," he told CBS News.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
WASHINGTON - Both chambers of the US Congress convened for only a few minutes late on Thursday, but took no steps to end a partial federal government shutdown before adjourning until next week.
Showing little sense of urgency over the shutdown, now in its sixth day, the Senate and the House of Representatives did nothing to restore funding for the roughly 20 percent of the government affected.
The shutdown was on track to continue into next week and possibly drag on well into January.
The shutdown was triggered by Republican President Donald Trump's demand, largely opposed by Democrats and some lawmakers within his own party, that US taxpayers provide $5 billion for a wall he wants to build along the US-Mexico border.
Trump wants the money to be included in spending measures that Congress must pass to restore funding to several government agencies, including the departments of Homeland Security, Justice, Agriculture and Commerce.
On Saturday, when their existing funding expired, those agencies shut down "nonessential" operations. It was the third shutdown of the year. The previous 2 were brief.
“The president has made clear that any bill to fund the government must adequately fund border security," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in a statement that made no mention of Trump's proposed wall.
The shutdown has had only a limited impact so far, partly due to holiday vacations being underway for the 800,000 or so federal workers affected.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
WASHINGTON - According to President Donald Trump, federal workers affected by the US government shutdown support him as he insists on no deal until Congress funds a wall on the Mexican border.
But rather than cheering him on, many of the 800,000 workers forced either to work without salaries or go on unpaid leave are voicing growing anxiety as they wonder how to pay approaching bills or buy holiday gifts for their children.
After past shutdowns, Congress quickly ensured that federal workers were retroactively paid. But the end of the month is approaching with no headway on reopening the government.
Kevin, a statistician at the Census Bureau, said he recently relocated to Washington with his wife and 2-and-a-half-year-old son from North Carolina in search of the long-term stability of a government job.
But he said he used up his savings to finance the move and that his son has required early intervention services for delayed development.
"Taking care for a kid with special needs is draining physically, mentally and financially," he told AFP in an email.
"Our budget is really tight and getting tighter. I no longer purchase clothes for myself and I cut my own hair."
He may also have to put his rent on a credit card, added Kevin, asking that his surname be withheld because of rules against government employees speaking on politics.
Kevin's colleagues have reassured him that they have survived similar situations. The shutdown is the third this year, after 2 brief funding gaps, and another stoppage in 2013 was resolved after 16 days.
But Kevin is less optimistic this time, saying Trump, facing multiple crises, was acting like a "cornered animal."
Asked Wednesday on a surprise trip to Iraq how long the shutdown will last, Trump replied: "Whatever it takes."
Syl, who works at the Internal Revenue Service, said she only had enough savings to pay her upcoming rent and a few other expenses after spending on travel and gifts for the holidays.
While acknowledging that "I don't have it as bad as other employees" with children, she said that she resented "being used as a political pawn for the wall."
PANIC AS BILLS APPROACH
One of the major unions of federal workers, the National Treasury Employees Union, said nearly 80 percent of members indicated in a survey they were "very concerned" about paying for housing and other living expenses.
Some government employees and their families shared their predicaments online with the hashtag #ShutdownStories.
@katyjb88 wrote that her husband was in the Coast Guard and that they had one child with another on the way. They live in New York where they pay more than $2,000 a month in rent.
While active military are exempted from the shutdown, the Coast Guard is affected. Even if they are paid later, she wrote, "that won't help with bills due on the 1st."
For others, including @Ancient_Scout, consequences are even more immediate.
"Broke my lease to accept new fed job for which I have to attend 7 months of training in another state. Training canceled with shutdown," @Ancient_Scout tweeted.
"Homeless. Can't afford short(?)-term housing/have to work full-time for no pay/returning Xmas presents."
@juliedotburr said that as a government contractor she will not get paid at all so long as the shutdown persists.
"I am a single mom in panic mode. Picking up extra shifts at my 2nd job but it won't pay the rent!" she wrote.
SOLIDARITY WITH WORKERS
Signs of solidarity are growing in Washington, where lawmakers return Thursday with no deal in sight.
The Z-Burger restaurant is offering hamburgers free to federal employees, while Spanish chef Jose Andres, a longstanding critic of Trump, has invited the workers for a free sandwich in all of his Washington restaurants from 2pm to 5 pm.
But there are occasional signs of support for Trump, who has made a wall and a tough line on immigration the centerpiece of his 2016 campaign and said Tuesday that federal workers "want border security."
@InsiderIRS, a Twitter user with no followers as of Wednesday afternoon, wrote that federal workers bore a constitutional responsibility to defend against "invasion."
"As an IRS employee, I am proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with my furloughed comrades to support the sovereignty of our nation," @InsiderIRS wrote.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
Washington, United States -- US Democratic leaders charged Monday that President Donald Trump was "plunging the country into chaos" with multiple crisis and said he was offering no way to end a government shutdown.
Nancy Pelosi, who takes over next month as House speaker, and Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the Republican-led Senate, complained that White House aides were giving inconsistent messages on what Trump would accept to restart the government.
"It's Christmas Eve and President Trump is plunging the country into chaos," the two said in a joint statement.
"The stock market is tanking and the president is waging a personal war on the Federal Reserve -- after he just fired the secretary of defense," they said.
They warned that they saw little solution to the three-day-old shutdown so long as Trump aligns himself with hard-right Republicans in the House of Representatives.
"The president wanted the shutdown, but he seems not to know how to get himself out of it," they said.
Trump has refused to sign a bill to authorize spending to keep the government functioning as he demands funding for a $5 billion wall on the Mexican border, a top election promise as he railed against unauthorized immigrants.
Trump has put off vacation plans in Florida due to the shutdown and has been frequently posting his thoughts on Twitter.
On Monday he attacked the Federal Reserve, which is traditionally shielded from political pressure, over a sharp downturn on the stock market and defended his decision to pull all US troops from Syria, which led to the resignation last week of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, often considered the most respected member of his cabinet.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
WASHINGTON - The United States on Sunday entered day two of a government shutdown gridlocking Washington that the White House budget director said could persist into the new year and the next Congress.
A budget deal to end the partial shutdown -- which forced several key US agencies to cease operations on Saturday -- appears a distant prospect as Congress adjourned for the weekend ahead of Christmas.
"It's very possible that this shutdown will go beyond the 28th and into the new Congress," White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said of the impasse over funding for the wall that President Donald Trump wants to build on the US-Mexico border.
But while trying to pin the blame on Democrats, Mulvaney, speaking on "Fox News Sunday," acknowledged that Trump's adamance on the wall played a role.
"This is what Washington looks like when you have a president who refuses to sort of go along to get along," Mulvaney said.
It is the third partial government shutdown of the year, even though Trump's Republican Party still controls both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Democrats will take control of the House on January 3, giving them greater leverage in the shutdown talks.
'A LONG STAY'
Trump canceled his holiday vacation to Florida due to the budget wrangling, and his wife Melania, who had already traveled to their Mar-a-Lago resort, was returning to Washington to spend the holidays with her husband.
The president has dug in on his demand for $5 billion for the border wall, a signature campaign promise that he repeatedly said Mexico would pay for.
"The only way to stop drugs, gangs, human trafficking, criminal elements and much else from coming into our Country is with a Wall or Barrier," he said Sunday on Twitter.
A day earlier, Trump tweeted that he was in the White House "working hard" to find a solution but that "it could be a long stay."
Indeed, Democrats believe they have a stronger hand in the faceoff against a president who said he would be "proud" to force a shutdown -- rarely popular among the broader public -- in the name of tighter border security.
In the absence of a deal, federal funds for dozens of agencies lapsed on Saturday, leaving some 400,000 federal workers on furlough. A similar number were deemed essential -- including Border Patrol officers, health inspectors and airport security workers -- and are remaining on the job without pay.
With most lawmakers home for the holidays, and few evident signs of flexibility on either side, it was hard to discern the outlines of any resolution.
"The Democrats offered us $1.6 billion a couple weeks ago, then they offered the president $1.3 billion this week," said Mulvaney, who is set to become Trump's acting chief of staff in January. "That's a negotiation that seems like it's going in the wrong direction."
He was speaking on ABC's "This Week."
Senator Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, blamed the shutdown on a "remarkable two-week temper tantrum" by the president, who he said could reopen the government if he would "abandon the wall."
Another Democrat, Senator Chris Coons, said on CBS that now "there is frankly no path towards his getting $5 billion in American taxpayer money to meet his campaign promise of a 'big, beautiful wall' with Mexico."
'IT'S JUVENILE'
Even some Republicans expressed consternation over what they dubbed an avoidable crisis.
"The Democrats easily would support more border funding, border security, they've said that" if a broader deal could be reached, Republican Senator Bob Corker said on CNN.
"This is something that is unnecessary. It's a spectacle and, candidly, it's juvenile," said Corker, speaking in his final days before stepping down from Congress.
"This is a made-up fight so that the president can look like he's fighting."
Corker suggested that a deal could be reached if Trump were prepared to give ground on Democrats' demand to protect the status of the "Dreamers" -- Latinos who, as children, arrived illegally in the United States with their parents.
Mulvaney said Trump was "willing to discuss a larger immigration solution," but that citizenship for the "Dreamers" was not a popular idea among many Republicans.
SHUTTERED MUSEUMS, NO PAYCHECK
The year-end holidays have masked many of the shutdown's visible effects, but they will gradually spread.
Visitors to the capital's park-like National Mall, home to attractions including war memorials and the towering Washington Monument, were among the first to feel it.
Several criticized the shutdown, which added to an air of chaos in a capital still reeling from Defense Secretary Jim Mattis's resignation last week over Trump policies.
Jeffrey Grignon, a Wisconsin healthcare worker, said politicians of both parties "need to stop acting like children."
But another visitor, Howard Vander Griend of Tennessee, predicted Trump will come out a winner: "I think he will get what he wants and I think that's a good thing."
Tourists could still visit open-air sites on the Mall but found public restrooms locked.
Some national parks have shuttered completely, but New York's governor provided funding to keep the Statue of Liberty open.
Most critical US security functions remain operational.
About three-quarters of the government, including the military, is fully funded through September 2019.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
