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Trump, Dems Reach Deal to Reopen Government for Three Weeks

Donald Trump Takes Swipe At Lawyer Michael Avenatti Following New Allegations About Brett Kavanaugh
U.S. President Donald Trump leaves after a United Nations Security Council briefing in New York, U.S., on Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2018. Trump said that China is attempting to interfere in the 2018 midterm congressional elections and alleged Beijing seeks to help his opponents. Photographer: Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg via Getty Images
By Kirsten West Savali ·
President Trump and Democrats have reached “a tentative deal to temporarily reopen the government and continue talks on Trump’s demand for border wall money,” briefly ending the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, the Associated Press reports. The government will be reopened until Feb. 15. Over the course of the 35-Day shutdown, 800,000 federal workers have had to work without pay, or have been unable to work. As ESSENCE previously reported:
According to Politico, of the 26,000 staffers of the IRS called back to work for the tax filing season, only around 12,000 showed up for work on Tuesday, a Democratic aide revealed. Some 5,000 of the workers in the Wage and Investment Division claimed hardship exemption – with many unable to afford transport to work or childcare – while another 9,000 just could not be reached by the agency.
House Leader Nancy Pelosi placed social media pressure on Trump earlier today—as she has done for the past month—holding him responsible for threatening and endangering the livelihoods (and lives) of hundreds of thousands of people. See Trump discuss the temporary cease fire below in the Rose Garden: