Washington braced for a looming government shutdown on Tuesday, as Republicans and Democrats appeared unlikely to reach a deal that would extend funding past the midnight deadline. The Republican-controlled Senate is expected to vote on a stopgap spending bill that has already failed once, with no signs that a second vote will be successful. Democrats want to modify the must-pass spending bill to extend health benefits for millions of Americans that are set to expire at the end of the year. Republicans say they should address the issue separately. Meanwhile, federal agencies released...
The number of job openings on the last business day of August stood at 7.22 million, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported in the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) on Tuesday. This reading followed the 7.2 million openings reported for July and came in above the market expectation of 7.2 million. "Over the month, both hires and total separations were little changed at 5.1 million," the BLS noted in its press release. "Within separations, both quits (3.1 million) and layoffs and discharges (1.7 million) were little changed." This data failed to trigger a noticeable...
U.S. President Donald Trump warned congressional Democrats on Tuesday that allowing the federal government to shut down at midnight would allow his administration to take "irreversible" actions including shutting down programs important to them. "We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible, that are bad for them and irreversible by them, like cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like," Trump said in remarks to reporters from the White House Oval Office. "You all know Russell Vought," Trump added, referring to the...