Senate Democrats reached an agreement with their Republican counterparts yesterday to reopen the US government, ending a three-day impasse over immigration policy that kept 750,000 federal workers at home and marred the first anniversary of the Trump administration.
Chuck Schumer, the Democrats’ leader in the Senate, who last week orchestrated the blocking of a temporary spending bill, said his party agreed to fund the government for three weeks after Mitch McConnell, the top Senate Republican, promised to introduce legislation to protect “Dreamers” — 800,000 people brought illegally to the US as children who face deportation.
The pact brought to an end, at least temporarily, a bitter partisan fight in which Republicans sought to portray Mr Schumer as championing illegal immigrants over funding essential services. But Republicans also faced voter ire, since the shutdown was the first time Washington had failed to fund itself with the same party in charge of the House, Senate and presidency.