We’re ending our live coverage for the day, thanks for following along. A recap of the major developments:
There was no end to the shutdown in sight after Donald Trump abruptly ended a meeting with Democratic leaders, calling it a “total waste of time”.
Some Republicans have said they would support reopening the government without wall funding, but Trump urged Senate Republicans to “stick together”.
Trump also claimed he had the “absolute right” to declare an emergency, saying the “threshold” for the declaration is if he can’t broker a deal with Congress.
House Democrats are planning to start passing individual spending bills that would reopen closed departments in hopes of ratcheting up pressure on Republicans.
Democrats have also pushed legislation that would prohibit creditors and landlords from taking actions against federal workers hurt by the shutdown.
Some Democrats have also pushed a measure today that would prohibit creditors and landlords from taking actions against federal workers hurt by the shutdown:
Legislation could potentially protect employees from foreclosures, evictions and loan defaults:
The White House is reportedly discussing a scenario to reopen the government that would involve Trump declaring a national emergency, the courts intervening, and Congress and the president ending the shutdown while the case is going through litigation, according to the Wall Street Journal:
It’s unclear if the president is interested in this option:
The federal government has halted some routine food inspections due to the shutdown. The AP has some details on the impact on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA):
The US government isn’t doing routine food inspections because of the partial federal shutdown, but checks of the riskiest foods are expected to resume next week.
The Food and Drug Administration says it’s working to bring back about 150 employees to inspect riskier foods such as cheese, infant formula and produce. FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said the agency can’t make the case that “a routine inspection of a Nabisco cracker facility” is necessary during the shutdown, however.
The FDA conducts about 8,400 inspections a year, or an average of 160 a week. Gottlieb said riskier foods account for about a third of the food covered by the agency’s domestic inspections.
The shutdown has had a severe impact on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), with cuts that could put Americans’ health at risk moving forward. Guardian environment reporter Oliver Milmanreports:
More than 13,000 employees at the EPA are not at work, with just 794 people deemed essential staff currently undertaking the agency’s duties.
Routine activities such as checks on regulated businesses, clean-ups of toxic superfund sites and the pursuit of criminal polluters have been paused since 28 December.
Disaster relief payments to people harmed by hurricanes Michael and Florence have been delayed.
Preparations to battle wildfires in Alaska have been hampered.
Testing to ensure toxic chemicals aren’t leaking into the lower Cape Fear river in North Carolina has been halted.
Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami have suspended work on predicting the next storm season, in the wake of a punishing series of hurricanes in 2018.
An estimated 35.3 million people watched Trump speak live on Tuesday night in his televised address that used falsehoods and misleading statistics to claim there was a crisis at the US-Mexico border.
Here are some stats on viewers from Nielsen, via the AP:
Fox News Channel with 8.044 million viewers and CBS with 8.043 million were in a virtual dead heat as the top destination. NBC was third with 7 million, followed by ABC, MSNBC, CNN and Fox broadcasting.
The total, which came from 11 separate networks that decided to air the speech live, was about 10m fewer viewers than Trump had for his 2018 State of the Union address.
New York governor Andrew Cuomo is facing some backlash for a joke he made about the #MeToo movement while telling reporters to move back earlier today:
Trump has repeatedly mocked the #MeToo movement, and so have some Democrats:
Here’s what we know about the Situation Room meeting Trump called a “waste of time”.
There was candy. Butterfingers, Babe Ruth’s, M&Ms and possibly skittles. It resolved nothing.
The Democratic leaders tried to humanize the shutdown by talking about its impacts, according to a congressional aide.
They emphasized that Democrats do want borders security – but that a wall wouldn’t stop the flow of drugs or illegal border crossings.
Trump, according to the aide, talked about “thousands” storming the border and claimed without evidence that large numbers of women being trafficked over the border “with tape over their mouths”.
At one point during the discussion, the Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said: “You are using people as leverage. Why won’t you open the government and stop hurting people?
According to the aide, Trump replied: “Because then you won’t give me what I want.”
Trump then asked Pelosi if he “quickly” re-opened the government would she support a wall in 30 days. The speaker said she would not.
“What’s the point?” Trump responded. In a disputed account, he slammed his hands on table. But all agreed that it ended with him saying: “Bye bye”
US Coast Guard employees impacted by the government shutdown were given tips on how to make up for lost wages: consider babysitting, dog-walking or holding a garage sale, according to a new report in the Washington Post.
Those suggestions apparently came in a five-page tip sheet that also said: “Bankruptcy is a last option.”
The Coast Guard gets funding from homeland security and currently has roughly 6,400 employees on indefinite furlough, along with 2,100 working without pay, the paper reported.
A spokesperson told the Post that the suggestions in the tip sheet did not “reflect the Coast Guard’s current efforts to support our workforce during this lapse in appropriations”, and that the “guidance” had now been removed from its website.
Sam Levin here, taking over our live coverage of the government shutdown as negotiations have once again failed. A quick summary of key highlights from the day:
Donald Trump abruptly ended a meeting with Democratic leaders, calling it a “total waste of time”.
The president met with Senate Republicans in a closed-door meeting earlier, urging them to “stick together”.
Some Republicans have said they would support reopening the government without wall funding, but Trump has claimed the GOP is “unified”.
Trump also claimed he has the “absolute right” to declare an emergency, saying the “threshold” for the declaration is if he can’t broker a deal with Congress.
House Democrats are planning to start passing individual spending bills that would reopen closed departments in hopes of ratcheting up pressure on Republicans.
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said the the president was using federal workers as “hostages through a temper tantrum”.