By Glynn Wilson –

Congressional leaders reached a tentative agreement to temporarily reopen the federal government on Friday, and President Donald J. Trump caved into Congressional demands and agreed, averting a growing disaster at the nation’s airports and national security threats.

The deal would lift the federal shutdown for three weeks and does not include the $5.7 billion Trump had requested to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Federal workers who have been on furlough or working without pay would receive back pay.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was set to put a proposal on the floor for a vote.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he expects the continuing resolution to fund the government will pass both chambers in Congress Friday afternoon and be signed by the president later in the day.

“It’s sad, though, that it’s taken this long to come to this conclusion,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.

Once the government is reopened, a bipartisan conference committee in Congress will then review Department of Homeland Security requests for border security.

Schumer said that though Democrats don’t agree with Republicans on some specifics of border security, they do see eye-to-eye on some issues — increased drug inspection technology and humanitarian aid at the border.

“That bodes well for finding an eventual agreement,” Schumer said.

But in a statement issued from the White House Rose Garden, the president then threatened to shut down the government again in February if he doesn’t get what he wants, a wall.

“If we don’t get a fair deal from Congress, the government will either shut down on Feb. 15 — again — or I will use the powers afforded to me under the laws and Constitution of the United States to address this emergency,” he said.

In its 35th day on Friday, the government shutdown began on Dec. 22 after Trump refused to sign a stopgap funding bill — passed by both the House and Senate — because it didn’t include the money for a wall.

The newly elected leadership in Democrat-controlled House has refused to add the funding into its legislation, and the Republican-controlled Senate has also been divided and against Trump’s plan.

The shutdown has left 800,000 federal employees on furlough or working without pay. Many missed their second paycheck Friday, and some have applied for unemployment. It is the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

A little more than half of those employees are considered essential and are working without pay — including airport screeners and air traffic controllers. The Transportation Security Administration has required employees to work without pay for weeks, but a higher number of workers have been calling in sick since the shutdown began, causing problems at airports.

A lack of air traffic controllers crippled flights on Friday throughout the Northeast, and New York City’s LaGuardia Airport stopped all flights arriving at the airport. Air traffic also was delayed in Philadelphia and Newark, N.J.

On Thursday, the Senate failed to pass either of two bills to end the shutdown. One, proposed by Trump and backed by McConnell, would’ve funded the government through the end of the fiscal year in September and included money for the border wall.

The Democrat-backed bill funded the government through Feb. 8 and included no border wall funding.

U.S. Senator Doug Jones Expresses Relief

U.S. Senator Doug Jones said the short-term funding measure would ensure that federal workers receive their back pay and shut-down agencies would be funded through February 15, allowing negotiations to continue in Congress on border security, averting disasters.

“I encourage my colleagues to vote for this agreement,” the Senator said. “This is a positive step forward.”

Yet he expressed disappointed that it took the president 35 days to agree to a clean continuing resolution. The Senate first unanimously passed one on December 19th.

“I have consistently said since that date that we need to re-open the government, get workers paid and back on the job, and then have good-faith conversations about how we strengthen our border security,” Senator Jones said in a statement. “I strongly urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to use this opportunity to come together and begin talking to one another seriously about the kinds of long-term solutions we can agree on. No one wants to see another government shutdown next month. We cannot let partisan politics or campaign promises get in the way of doing our jobs for the American people.”

On the floor of the U.S. Senate, Senator Jones delivered remarks on the proposed bill to end the government shutdown, as well as reiterated his call to pay interest for back pay owed to the more than 800,000 federal employees who were furloughed or forced to work without pay. Thursday night, Senator Jones introduced the Back Pay Fairness Act, legislation that would require federal workers who are impacted by the shutdown to receive their full back-pay plus interest.

“This government functions best when this body does what the founders of the Constitution said we should do,” Senator Jones said . “Our founders contemplated the fact that we’re going to have disagreements. That is why we have 100 people in the Senate, that is why we have 435 in the U.S. House of Representatives, and that is why there are 9 members of the Supreme Court. We can have disagreements. We don’t have to shut down the government over those disagreements, especially when they are political disagreements rather than substantive disagreements.”