(Washington) Donald Trump signed a budget text on Tuesday to put an end to more than three days of paralysis of part of the American federal administration.
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This represents “a great victory for the American people”, welcomed the President of the United States at the White House, promulgating this text adopted earlier by the House of Representatives.
It allows the official conclusion of this “shutdown” in force since Saturday against a backdrop of dissension between Republicans and Democrats over funding for the immigration police (ICE), after the recent events in Minneapolis.
The text was narrowly adopted, despite the “no” of 21 Republicans categorically refusing to renegotiate the budget of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a demand from the Democrats.
In all, however, 21 Democrats voted in favor, offsetting the votes of these Republican holdouts.
The Republican leader of the House, Mike Johnson, had spent a good part of the last two days negotiating with refractory elected officials from his camp.
To convince them, he was able to count on significant support, with Donald Trump’s message on Monday to parliamentarians.
Minneapolis
“We must reopen the government and I hope that all Republicans and Democrats will join me in supporting this law,” said the tenant of the White House.
He also said he wanted promulgation “without delay” to put an end to this “shutdown”, which has its origins in the recent events in Minneapolis.
Democrats are outraged by 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, which depends on the DHS, in this metropolis in the northern 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 ICE being put in place.
In particular, they demand the systematic use of body-worn cameras for agents, a ban on the wearing of balaclavas and even that a judicial warrant precede any arrest.
“Negotiate in good faith”
“No one is above the law. ICE agents should be held to the same rules as any other member of law enforcement in this country,” Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said at a news conference Monday at the Capitol.
PHOTO ROBERTO SCHMIDT, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Hakeem Jeffries, Democratic House Minority Leader
The text adopted Tuesday approves five of the six budget sections, while the part concerning DHS will be the subject of further negotiations over the next two weeks.
“We have two weeks now to negotiate in good faith on both sides” of the chamber, Mike Johnson said Tuesday.
If negotiations fail, DHS could find itself alone in a situation of budgetary paralysis. However, it would have several billion dollars of funds already approved last year by Congress in a separate text to operate.
Between October and November last year, the United States experienced the longest “shutdown” in its history with 43 days, during which Republicans and Democrats fought over the question of subsidies for health insurance for millions of Americans.
