Congress, Trump agree to end record shutdown

WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump said he would accept a bipartisan deal Friday to reopen the government until Feb. 15 without any additional money for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. The deal would end the 35-day partial government shutdown, the longest on record, and ensure shuttered federal agencies reopen and about 800,000 employees receive back pay. The House and the Senate were both expected to quickly bring the deal to a vote Friday.

The president said he believes Republicans and Democrats are “willing to put partisanship aside … and put the security of the American people first.” After the government reopens, a bipartisan committee of House and Senate lawmakers will review recommendations from homeland security experts and law enforcement professionals about border security, Trump said.

Democrats have pushed the president to reopen the government and then negotiate for the wall, something Trump previously said he would not consider. On Thursday, two competing spending bills failed on the Senate floor, but the Democratic plan received six Republican votes, upping the pressure on Republicans to find a way to end the shutdown.

Trump ended his statement Friday afternoon by making the case for a border wall, saying that if Congress does not provide money for it when the short-term funding bill expires, then the shutdown will resume or he will use a “very powerful alternative,” perhaps a reference to declaring a national emergency, to build the wall.