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As U.S. government reopens, lawmakers say shutdowns don't work

January 27, 2019 / 4:06 AM / Updated 3 hours ago
David Shepardson, Howard Schneider

...President Trump's Shutdown Threatens Vitality Of FBI, National Security | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As the U.S. government moved to reopen after a 35-day partial shutdown, some lawmakers on Sunday criticized using the closure of federal agencies as a tool in policy disputes, which President Donald Trump has threatened to do again.

Senior legislators from both parties said the latest shutdown, the 19th since the mid-1970s, was as ineffective as previous ones but much more disruptive as it was the longest in U.S. history.

“Shutdowns are not good leverage in any negotiation,” Republican Senator Marco Rubio said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” urging congressional conferees to tackle border security in the three-week talks launched by last week’s shutdown-ending deal.

Hakeem Jeffries, chairman of the Democratic caucus in the House of Representatives, said on the same television show that shutdowns were “not legitimate negotiating tactics” in public policy disagreements between two branches of government.

About 800,000 federal workers were furloughed or worked without pay during the shutdown, missing at least two paychecks that officials are now working to make up for.

“We hope that by the end of this week, all the back pay will be made up,” acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/former-starbucks-chief-howard-schultz-confirms-interest-in-independent-2020-bid-as-democratic-worries-rise/2019/01/27/d6d8e446-2245-11e9-ad53-824486280311_story.html?utm_term=.477189adc120