House votes to end US government shutdown and elects Nancy Pelosi as speaker
Washington — The new House Democratic majority voted on Thursday to end the partial government shutdown but brought Congress no closer to resolving the impasse over President Donald Trump’s demand to pay for a border wall. The president and Senate Republicans oppose the Democrats’ plan, and the next effort to reopen the closed agencies will come when leaders of both parties meet with Trump at the White House on Friday morning. Republican representative Mark Meadows of North Carolina, a close confidant of Trump and chair of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, predicted the shutdown would last for months. “The impasse is real and it is deep,” Meadows said in an interview. The House votes came hours after the opening of the 116th Congress and the election of Nancy Pelosi in a triumphant return as House speaker, the only woman to serve in the position. She first served as speaker from 2007 to 2011. The House voted 239-192 to pass the first government spending bill, HJ Res 1, which wo...
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