US government shutdown enters 2nd day, set to last through Christmas
Washington, Dec 23 : A partial US government shutdown that entered its second day on Sunday was set to stretch through Christmas, after Congress adjourned for the weekend with no deal in sight to end an impasse over funding for President Donald Trump's wall on the US-Mexico border.
Due to the shutdown -- in which several key US agencies ceased operations at 12:01 am (0501 GMT) Saturday -- Trump said he would remain in Washington over Christmas instead of going to Florida.
"I am in the White House, working hard," the Republican president tweeted. "We are negotiating with the Democrats on desperately needed Border Security (Gangs, Drugs, Human Trafficking & more) but it could be a long stay."
Trump has dug in on his demand for USD5 billion for construction of the border wall, a signature campaign promise and part of his effort to reduce illegal immigration. Democrats are staunchly opposed, and the absence of a deal meant federal funds for dozens of agencies lapsed at midnight Friday.
The House of Representatives and the Senate held sessions on Saturday, but both chambers adjourned without agreement, and no votes were expected until Thursday.
Visitors to the capital's park-like National Mall, home to attractions including war memorials and the towering Washington Monument, criticized the shutdown which added to an air of chaos in a capital still reeling from Defense Secretary Jim Mattis's resignation last week over Trump policies.
The uncertainty also helped pushed Wall Street into another rout on Friday, ending its worst week in a decade.
"Oh I think it's ridiculous. It's unnecessary," Philip Gibbs, a retired business professor from South Virginia, said of the shutdown.
Jeffrey Grignon, a Wisconsin healthcare worker, said the politicians "need to stop acting like children" and do the work they were elected to do.
"It isn't just one or two people. It's all them," he said.
Another visitor, Howard Vander Griend, 57, predicted Trump will come out a winner from the budget impasse.
"I don't think the shutdown will pressure president Trump at all," said Vander Griend, of Tennessee. "So I think he will get what he wants and I think that's a good thing."
Although tourists could still stroll along the Mall and visit its open-air sites, they found public restrooms closed. Some other Washington tourist sites including the White House Visitor Center, National Christmas Tree, and National Archives -- home to the US Constitution and other historic documents -- were closed.
Some national parks have shuttered completely, but New York's governor provided funding to the Statue of Liberty monument and Ellis Island so those attractions could remain open.
This is the third partial government shutdown of the year, even though Trump's own Republican party still controls both the House and Senate.
That will change in January when the House comes under Democratic control.
Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer blamed the president for provoking the latest furlough.
"The Trump shutdown isn't over border security; it's because President Trump is demanding billions of dollars for an expensive, ineffective wall that the majority of Americans don't support," Schumer said.
Most critical US security functions remain operational, but 800,000 federal workers are affected, with many furloughed before Christmas. Others deemed essential, including Transportation Security Administration officers screening passengers during the holiday crush, are working unpaid.
Governor Ralph Northam of Virginia -- a state bordering the US capital that is home to many federal employees -- urged Trump in a letter Saturday to push immediate action to end the shutdown, saying it "inflicts real harm" on workers.
"I share your desire for strong economic growth throughout the United States, but the current partial government shutdown makes it harder to achieve this goal," the Democratic governor said.
About three-quarters of the government, including the military and the Department of Health and Human Services, is fully funded until the end of September 2019, leaving 25 per cent unfunded as of Saturday.
One focus of last-minute discussions was USD 1.6 billion in border security support that was a part of pending Senate legislation, number two Senate Republican John Cornyn told AFP.
Conservatives in the House would likely balk at that figure.
Trump had reversed course Thursday and rejected a measure that had unanimously passed the Senate and was under House consideration. It would have extended government funding until February 8 to allow time for debate about issues including border security, but it contained no money for a wall.
With ultra-conservative lawmakers and media commentators demanding that the president stick to his campaign promises, Trump stood his ground on the wall.
The House then swiftly passed a bill that fulfilled the president's demands and included USD 5.7 billion in wall funding, but it stalled at the first hurdle in the Senate.
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Single higher education regulator bill tabled in LS; Oppn flags ‘centralisation,' JPC likely
New Delhi: A bill to set up a 13-member body to regulate institutions of higher education was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan introduced the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, which seeks to establish an overarching higher education commission along with three councils for regulation, accreditation, and ensuring academic standards for universities and higher education institutions in India.
Meanwhile, the move drew strong opposition, with members warning that it could weaken institutional autonomy and result in excessive centralisation of higher education in India.
The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, earlier known as the Higher Education Council of India (HECI) Bill, has been introduced in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The proposed legislation seeks to merge three existing regulatory bodies, the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), into a single unified body called the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan.
At present, the UGC regulates non-technical higher education institutions, the AICTE oversees technical education, and the NCTE governs teacher education in India.
Under the proposed framework, the new commission will function through three separate councils responsible for regulation, accreditation, and the maintenance of academic standards across universities and higher education institutions in the country.
According to the Bill, the present challenges faced by higher educational institutions due to the multiplicity of regulators having non-harmonised regulatory approval protocols will be done away with.
The higher education commission, which will be headed by a chairperson appointed by the President of India, will cover all central universities and colleges under it, institutes of national importance functioning under the administrative purview of the Ministry of Education, including IITs, NITs, IISc, IISERs, IIMs, and IIITs.
At present, IITs and IIMs are not regulated by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Government to refer bill to JPC; Oppn slams it
The government has expressed its willingness to refer it to a joint committee after several members of the Lok Sabha expressed strong opposition to the Bill, stating that they were not given time to study its provisions.
Responding to the opposition, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the government intends to refer the Bill to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for detailed examination.
Congress Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari warned that the Bill could result in “excessive centralisation” of higher education. He argued that the proposed law violates the constitutional division of legislative powers between the Union and the states.
According to him, the Bill goes beyond setting academic standards and intrudes into areas such as administration, affiliation, and the establishment and closure of university campuses. These matters, he said, fall under Entry 25 of the Concurrent List and Entry 32 of the State List, which cover the incorporation and regulation of state universities.
Tewari further stated that the Bill suffers from “excessive delegation of legislative power” to the proposed commission. He pointed out that crucial aspects such as accreditation frameworks, degree-granting powers, penalties, institutional autonomy, and even the supersession of institutions are left to be decided through rules, regulations, and executive directions. He argued that this amounts to a violation of established constitutional principles governing delegated legislation.
Under the Bill, the regulatory council will have the power to impose heavy penalties on higher education institutions for violating provisions of the Act or related rules. Penalties range from ₹10 lakh to ₹75 lakh for repeated violations, while establishing an institution without approval from the commission or the state government could attract a fine of up to ₹2 crore.
Concerns were also raised by members from southern states over the Hindi nomenclature of the Bill. N.K. Premachandran, an MP from the Revolutionary Socialist Party representing Kollam in Kerala, said even the name of the Bill was difficult to pronounce.
He pointed out that under Article 348 of the Constitution, the text of any Bill introduced in Parliament must be in English unless Parliament decides otherwise.
DMK MP T.M. Selvaganapathy also criticised the government for naming laws and schemes only in Hindi. He said the Constitution clearly mandates that the nomenclature of a Bill should be in English so that citizens across the country can understand its intent.
Congress MP S. Jothimani from Tamil Nadu’s Karur constituency described the Bill as another attempt to impose Hindi and termed it “an attack on federalism.”
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