WASHINGTON D.C. (WTNH)– Monday is day three of the federal government shutdown but a Senate vote that could end it is scheduled for noon.
The sticking point right now is immigration. Democrats in the Senate say they will not vote to re-open the government until republicans agree to deal with the so-called Dreamers.
The result is, about 800,000 employees of the federal government will not be going to work Monday morning. They are considered furloughed because they are non-essential. If you want to go to a national park today, for instance, you will not be able to.
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Essential employees like air traffic controller and border guards are on the job, so you can travel for instance. Those workers have to work, they just don’t know when they will get their next paycheck.
Senate democrats insist something must be done about the Dreamers, who are immigrants who were brought to this country by their parents when they were young, without proper documentation.
Until that is settled, they say they will not vote for even a short-term funding proposal that would keep the government running for another few weeks.
“We cannot continue lurching from one crisis to another with short term temporary patches of 4 week extensions,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, (D) Connecticut.
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He says those extensions are not fair to the military, children’s health care and to the Dreamers. There are close to a million of those Dreamers who could be deported to countries they don’t remember.
The top democrat in the Senate, Chuck Schumer of New York, says he thought he had a deal with President Donald Trump to fund His Mexico border wall proposal in exchange for protection for the Dreamers, but that plan fell through.
The next step is this next vote, scheduled for high noon Monday. It would extend government funding for 3 weeks.
Republicans are trying to get a handful of democrats on board, but right now we don’t know if they have the votes.