Senators Reached A Deal To End The Government Shutdown [REPORT]

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According to the latest report from NBC News, U.S. senators have reached a bipartisan compromise deal they believe will be enough to allow Congress to end the government shutdown.

Democratic and Republican senators are said to have worked out an arrangement that will enable Congress to pass a short-term funding bill that would effectively allow the government to continue operating after it had entered its third day of the shutdown.

CNBC reported that Democrats have received assurances that the Senate will take on burning immigration issues, most importantly addressing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who also serves as the senior Senator of Kentucky, released a statement earlier on Monday saying that he intends to allow debate on immigration to take place before February 8, the date when today’s funding bill is set to expire.

If today’s government funding bill gets passed and signed, the legislation will effectively enable all federal agencies to continue working. With the U.S. government funding lapsing last Friday, a large number of federal agencies were forced to shut their doors and to furlough non-essential workers.

As soon as the bill clears the Senate, it moves to the House of Representatives. If the lower chamber of the Senate approves the legislation, it goes directly to President Donald Trump for a final stamp of approval.

Democratic Sen. Mark Warner said that the party had the assurances they need in the budget and on immigration issues. “We’re going to reopen the government,” CNBC quoted Warner saying.

When faced with the reality of a government shutdown, some Democrats have expressed the willingness to compromise on pressing issues in order to speed up the funding bill. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and U.S. Representative for Illinois’s 4th congressional district, Luis Gutiérrez, said they were prepared to compromise on President Trump’s proposed border wall in order to secure protections for the young undocumented immigrants who fell under the protection of DACA.

The House of Representatives managed to pass a temporary funding bill on Thursday night, but the Senate, however, failed to approve it by the midnight Saturday deadline.

With Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell promising that their issues will be addressed immediately after the government shutdown ends, Republicans were hoping that enough Democrats will cross party lines to support the new, three-week funding bill.

Democrats who had opposed the previous funding bill on Friday night said that they would support the measure on Monday. Some of the senators who decided to compromise include Mark Warner of Virginia and Bill Nelson of Florida.

President Trump’s plan to hold a one-year anniversary celebration of his inauguration at Mar-a-Lago was halted by the government shutdown. The White House announced that the campaign fundraiser at the President’s private club in Palm Beach, Florida, would not take place and that the President would remain in Washington until a deal was reached.

According to White House budget director Mick Mulvaney, hundreds of thousands of federal employees received notices on Saturday evening, with some being instructed to stay home, and others told to go to work for up to four hours on Monday to shut down their operations. CNBC reported that none of the workers will get paid.

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