WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump signed a stopgap bill authorizing funds to the federal government late Monday bringing an end to a three-day government shutdown.

The White House confirmed Trump signed the bill after Senate Democrats reluctantly struck a deal with Republicans earlier in the day to continue funding federal services for the next two weeks.

Soon after, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives quickly voted to approve approved the deal.
"I am pleased that Democrats in Congress have come to their senses," Trump said in a statement, which White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders read to reporters at her daily briefing earlier in the day.

The White House argued Democrats "caved" after the President refused to negotiate on the controversial immigration policy until the government reopened.

Democrats had been aiming for a firmer commitment to provide protections for some 800,000 younger immigrants brought illegally to the US as children.

The shutdown, which affected hundreds of thousands of federal workers, took effect Saturday on the one-year anniversary of the president's inauguration, but the White House maintains that Trump came out the winner in his standoff with Democrats. (end) hy.mb
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