(Washington) Donald Trump on Monday called on the American Congress to adopt a budgetary text as soon as possible to put an end to the paralysis of part of the federal administration, after three days of this “shutdown” whose outcome is still uncertain.
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“We must reopen the government and I hope that all Republicans and Democrats will join me in supporting this law,” declared the American president on his Truth Social platform, saying he wanted it to land on his desk for promulgation “without delay”.
“NO CHANGE is possible at this stage” on this budgetary text, warned Donald Trump at a time when discontent is brewing even in his camp, threatening to prolong the paralysis.
Republican leaders, however, showed their optimism this weekend about a short-term “shutdown”.
“We will manage to finish all of this by Tuesday, I am convinced,” preached the Republican President of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, on Sunday.
He went so far as to evoke a “formality” to describe the vote expected Tuesday in the hemicycle to lift the budgetary paralysis.
But with the arrival in Congress on Monday of a new Democratic representative after a partial legislative election in Texas, Mr. Johnson knows that he cannot afford to lose more than one vote in his camp.
“Hostage”
However, several elected officials from the ultraconservative fringe have threatened to oppose the text because they categorically refuse to renegotiate the budget of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a demand from the Democrats.
“The Democrats are playing political games,” Republican MP Chip Roy of Texas said on Saturday, accusing the opposition of holding the DHS “hostage”.
The question of funding this important ministry is at the heart of the current blockage in Congress since the recent events in Minneapolis.
Democrats are indignant at the death at the end of January of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old American nurse shot and killed by federal agents on the sidelines of demonstrations against the presence of the immigration police (ICE), which depends on the DHS, in this metropolis in the north of the United States.
Her death came less than three weeks after that of Renee Good, also shot and killed by federal agents in Minneapolis.
Since then, Democrats have insisted on their refusal to pass any budget for DHS without significant reforms to the way its agents operate.
In particular, they demand the systematic use of body-worn cameras, a ban on the wearing of balaclavas and even that a judicial warrant precede any arrest of migrants.
” Words ”
Hakeem Jeffries, Democratic minority leader in the House, said Sunday that the Trump administration cannot “just talk” and must implement these measures today.
Faced with threats from certain elected officials in his camp, Mike Johnson could need votes from the opposition.
“We need good faith on both sides,” he urged on Sunday.
However, the United States will probably not experience a repeat of the blockage of October and November, when Republicans and Democrats battled for 43 days over the issue of health insurance subsidies.
Hundreds of thousands of civil servants had been placed on technical unemployment, while others, with missions considered essential, had to continue working. But everyone had to wait until the end of the budgetary paralysis to receive their salary.
The blockage only ended with the decision of a few Democratic senators to vote for a budget text concocted by the Republicans, in exchange for promises of concessions on these health insurance subsidies.
Their decision was strongly criticized by many Democratic supporters, who wanted to see a more vigorous opposition to Donald Trump.
