The partial government shutdown cost the federal government an estimated $6 billion, which is more than President Trump requested in border security funding before the shutdown even started.
According to Reuters, the loss estimate comes from financial services firm S&P Global Ratings, which warned that “business confidence and financial market sentiments” are likely to suffer if Republicans and Democrats don’t come together to fully fund the government for 2019.
Trump signed a temporary bipartisan continuing resolution Friday night that ended the longest government shutdown in U.S. history at 35 days. Congressional Democrats refused any funding bill that included $5.7 billion worth of funds for border security, including an expansion of border wall infrastructure on the southern border, while Trump refused to sign any bill without the funding. Roughly 800,000 federal workers in the nine departments and several agencies affected by the shutdown were either furloughed or had to work without a paycheck. They will receive back pay.
On Friday, two separate funding bills failed to pass the Senate, prompting Trump to propose a three-week stopgap measure to fund the government until Feb. 15. Trump said that if Democrats were unable to meet Republicans on border security, then he would declare a national emergency and have the wall built by circumventing Congress.
