US shutdown: Democrats to pass funding bills as they take control of House

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Democrats have vowed to pass bills that would end a government shutdown as they took control of the US House of Representatives on Thursday. But the bills will not include funding for President Donald Trump's Mexican border wall, the cause of the shutdown. The impasse will therefore continue, as Republicans still control the Senate and say they will not pass the funding bills without Mr Trump's approval. The partial shutdown has now lasted 13 days, affecting some 800,000 workers. Shutdowns occur when Congress fails to approve a budget for government operations, or the president refuses to sign it, by a certain deadline. Mr Trump's Republicans had passed a budget bill including $5bn (£4bn) funding for the wall in December, when they still had a majority in the House but they could not get the necessary 60 votes in the 100-seat Senate. The House majority has passed to the Democrats following the November mid-term elections. The impact of the government shutdown The remarkable comeback of America's most powerful woman Lawmaker to take oath on Jefferson's Koran What are the Democrats planning? Nancy Pelosi, who is the new House majority leader, said the Democrats would quickly pass budget legislation providing sufficient funds to end the shutdown. But she was quite clear what it would not include. Speaking on the Today show on Thursday, she reiterated: "Nothing for the wall." "There is no amount of persuasion he can do to say to us, 'We want you to do something that is not effective, that costs billions of dollars,'" she said. "That sends the wrong message about who we are as a country." Ms Pelosi also said she believed a sitting president could be indicted - although Justice Department guidelines disagree. How women are changing the face of Congress How US mid-terms just got worse for Trump The Democrats will try again to pass the blame for the shutdown on to the president, pointing out that the bills they will pass would be similar to legislation that had won bipartisan support in the Senate in December before Mr Trump signalled he would not back it.

"We're asking the president to open up government," Ms Pelosi said. "We have given the Republicans a chance to take yes for an answer." One Democrat bill would temporarily fund the Department of Homeland Security until 8 February, while another measure would fund other departments closed by the partial shutdown until 30 September. The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, has said Republicans there will not back measures that Mr Trump does not support. He called the Democrats' move a "total nonstarter" and a "political sideshow". The BBC's David Willis says the legislation would be dead on arrival in the Senate.