On Friday, January 25th, 2019, President Trump announced he will back a short-term funding bill to reopen the Federal government through February 15th, 2019. During that period, a bipartisan committee of House and Senate lawmakers will meet to develop a funding proposal for homeland security.

“After 36 days of spirited debate and dialogue, I have seen and heard from enough Democrats and Republicans that they are willing to put partisanship aside, I think, and put the security of the American people first,” Trump said in a statement delivered from the White House Rose Garden.

The announcement comes after days of Trump insisting that Republican lawmakers were united in the push to secure wall funding, and that he would not cave on the issue. The Senate on Thursday rejected a pair of proposals to reopen the government, including one offered up by the White House.

Notably, a measure to re-open the government for a few weeks that was backed by Senate Democrats also won six votes from Senate Republican, Following the Senate votes, Trump told reporters he would support a “reasonable agreement” among Senate leaders.

Earlier this month Trump had suggested he may declare a national emergency to secure funding for a border wall, but later backed down from the proposal, stating he would prefer that Congress address the issue.

On Friday, he hinted that an emergency declaration remained a possibility if lawmakers are unable to broker a deal to his liking. “As everyone knows, I have a very powerful alternative, but I didn’t want to use it at this time,” Trump said. “Hopefully it will be unnecessary.”

The urgency to reopen the government seemed to be heightened among some lawmakers on Friday after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) temporarily halted flights into and out of LaGuardia Airport in New York City, citing staffing shortages because of the shutdown.

 

Schedule a Free EB-5 Consultation

 

Please note: information in this email has been sourced from the Hill’s articles “Trump agrees to end shutdown without wall funding“, originally posted by Jordan Fabian and Brett Samuels on January 25, 2019, at 2:20 PM EST.