Trump administration makes new border offer as shutdown rolls on – live
Officials demanded $5.7m for ‘steel barrier’ accompanied by $800m to ‘address urgent humanitarian needs’ as shutdown enters 17th day
The shutdown is starting to create economic fallout nationally.
The Washington Post reports that it is starting to having a severe impact in towns and cities across the country.
Many of the affected federal workers — including 10,000 people in Utah, 6,200 in West Virginia and 5,500 in Alabama — have salaries far below the average $85,000 for government employees. But those paychecks drive local economies, and workers are starting to make tough choices about how to spend them — eating out less, limiting travel and shopping at food pantries instead of grocery stores — creating a ripple effect through the neighborhoods and towns where they live.
The Trump administration’s latest offer in the ongoing partial shutdown is $5.7 billion for a “steel barrier” accompanied by $800 million to “address urgent humanitarian needs.”
It represents a shift from concrete to steel in the building material for the border wall. As Trump told reporters yesterday:
“I informed my folks to say that we’ll build a steel barrier. Steel. It’ll be made out of steel. It’ll be less obtrusive, and it’ll be stronger. But it’ll be less obtrusive, stronger, and we’re able to use our great companies to make it, by using steel. … They don’t like concrete, so we’ll give them steel. Steel is fine. Steel is actually — steel is actually more expensive than concrete, but it will look beautiful and it’s very strong. It’s actually stronger.”