Congress failed to approve new spending before the fiscal year begins Wednesday, triggering the first government shutdown since 2018-2019, when the impasse over Trump’s request for US$5.7 billion in border wall funding sparked a shutdown that lasted a record 35 days.
The US government is shutting down, with agencies activating contingency plans that sideline hundreds of thousands of federal workers and halt a wide range of services.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that about 750,000 employees will be furloughed at a cost per day of US$400 million ($516 million) in lost compensation. President Donald Trump has also threatened to use the shutdown to fire federal workers, but agency plans for the lapse in funding didn’t specify any measures for terminations.
