By Erica Werner, Paul Kane and Felicia Sonmez WASHINGTON POST
WASHINGTON — Congress effectively gave up Thursday on breaking the impasse over President Donald Trump’s demands for border-wall funding, all but ensuring that the partial government shutdown will stretch at least into the start of the new year, when Democrats retake control of the House.
Trump retreated from public view, hurling insults at Democrats over Twitter, as the House and the Senate convened for just minutes before gaveling closed until next week. During the brief session in the House, Republicans shot down a Democratic attempt to vote on legislation to reopen the government.
The halls of the Capitol were largely vacant, and leaders’ offices were shuttered. There was no sign that negotiations were taking place. Instead, the two sides tradvised access to NASA operations and programming or access to the NASA Web site,” NASA’s current shutdown plan states.
Furloughed employees will be paid retroactively for the shutdown period if Congress approves payment, as it has done in the past. Those exempt from the shutdown will only get paid after the president signs off on a funding plan.
NASA eventually will return to full operations, but The Planetary Society, a nonprofit involved in space research, questioned in a web post Saturday how long the best and brightest will stay at NASA if political disruptions continue. This is the third federal government shutdown of 2018, and the Trump administration has indicated it could stretch into 2019.
“If this frequency of shutdowns continues, I fear that we will see more and more NASA employees ask themselves why they put up with such needless disruptions and leave for jobs in the private sector,” the post stated.
In a related matter, the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library Foundation announced that some areas of the College Station library and museum honoring the 41st president will remain open.
The museum rotunda — the entry area that houses a memorial exhibit honoring President George H.W. Bush as well as the gift shop — will be open through Dec. 29 from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Bush family gravesite behind the library building will be open during the same hours every day except on New Year’s Day.
The Bush Presidential Library and Museum, which is part of the National Archives, will remain closed due to the shutdown.
Jay R. Jordan contributed to this report. alex.stuckey@chron.com twitter.com/alexdstuckey