US top Senate appropriator says shutdown talks remain at 'standoff': report

WASHINGTON, Dec 30 — US Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby said Sunday that the White House and congressional lawmakers are still "at a standoff" as the partial government shutdown entered the second week, urging both sides to find a way out.

"Our negotiations are at an impasse at the moment," Shelby said, according to a report by Politico. "I wish it were not so, but we've got to move away from the blame game - blaming the president, blaming the Democrats, (Nancy) Pelosi and (Chuck) Schumer and others - and get back to doing what we're sent there to do: to fund the government."

The shutdown began at midnight on Dec. 22 when the Congress failed to agree to a funding bill to keep a portion of federal agencies operational, with the sticking point being whether to include in the budget package 5 billion US dollars for constructing a wall on the US-Mexico Border. President Donald Trump has promised the wall and requested for the money.

"Right now, we're at a standoff, and I think that's not good for the Senate, the House, or America," Shelby said. "Nobody wins in a shutdown. We all lose and we kind of look silly."

Shelby said he tried to broker a compromise deal in which 2.5 billion dollars of border security funding is secured for the current fiscal year and the other 2.5 billion dollars will be appropriated next year. This proposal, however, "didn't work out."

Trump showed little sign of backing off, as White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway said Sunday that the president may veto the funding bill depending on "what's in it."

"It depends on what's in it. What is it going to say? They (the Democrats) are not even discussing it over the Christmas and New Year's break what could possibly be in that package," Conway said on CNN's "State of the Union."