President Donald Trump said he is signing a bill to reopen the federal government until Feb. 15, without receiving any money for the border wall.
Trump said that if a funding agreement on the border wall is not reached by the end of the three-week negotiation period, he will either shut down the government again or declare a national emergency. Trump also said that federal workers will receive their back pay “as soon as possible.”
This three-week funding extension is similar to the deal Senate Republicans offered the president at the beginning of the shutdown at the end of the last Congress and the same one that Democrats passed when they took control of the House on Jan. 3.
Possible border wall money will be discussed as part of a bipartisan conference of House and Senate members on homeland security appropriations.
Trump’s announcement came on the heels of an announcement by the Federal Aviation Administration that operations at three major US airports — New York City’s LaGuardia Airport, along with Newark and Philadelphia airports — would be scaled back due to safety and security concerns caused by higher-than-usual sick calls by Transport Security Administration and air traffic control workers.
Trump also continued to link illegal crossings at the southwest border to violent crime and drug trafficking in the US.
In the 35 days since the shutdown began on Dec. 22, Trump’s job approval rating has fallen to the lowest point in a year — from about 43 percent to 39 percent — according to an average of polls  by FiveThirtyEight.