WEB DESK
The US Senate has rejected two bills aimed at putting an end to the partial government shutdown, that enters its 35th day today.
The Senate first blocked US President Donald Trump’s proposal to add 5.7 billion US dollars for his US-Mexico border wall to legislation to resume funding for the government.
In second vote, the Senate turned back a Democratic measure that omitted the wall.
Later, Senate leaders from both parties briefly discussed a new proposal to reopen federal agencies for three weeks.
However, Trump told reporters that he would only sign a bill if it included a down payment on a border barrier. Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Trump’s request was not reasonable.
With no end in sight to the record-breaking closure of federal agencies, some 8,00,000 employees have been going unpaid since December 22, 2018.