EPA implements its shutdown plan
Washington -- The effects to the public of the partial government shutdown grew as the Environmental Protection Agency, which had the money to function a week longer than some agencies, implemented its shutdown plan at midnight Friday night.
EPA spokeswoman Molly Block said many of the agency's 14,000 employees were being furloughed, while disaster-response teams and certain other employees deemed essential would stay on the job.
"Due to a lapse in appropriations, EPA websites will not be regularly updated," said a notice Saturday morning on EPA.gov. "In the event of an environmental emergency imminently threatening the safety of human life or where necessary to protect certain property, the EPA website will be updated with appropriate information."
Also running short on money: the Smithsonian Institution, which said its museums and galleries popular with visitors and locals in the capital will close starting midweek if the partial shutdown drags on.
The shutdown is forcing hundreds of thousands of federal workers and contractors to stay home or work without pay. One federal worker told CBS News that she lives paycheck to paycheck, highlighting what's at stake.
On Saturday, the shutdown entered its second week, as President Trump and Democrats were trading blame but doing little substantive talking with each other amid the disruption. Mr. Trump appeared no closer to securing money for his signature border wall, and Democratic leaders -- adamant that they will not authorize money for the project -- showed no signs of bending, either.
"I am in the White House waiting for the Democrats to come on over and make a deal on Border Security," Mr. Trump tweeted on Saturday. "From what I hear, they are spending so much time on Presidential Harassment that they have little time left for things like stopping crime and our military!"
On Friday, Mr. Trump had upped the brinkmanship by threatening anew to close the border with Mexico if he does not get the funding he wants for his border wall. CBS News has estimated that closing the southern border would cost up to $1 billion a day.
Democrats vowed to pass legislation restoring the government as soon as they take control of the House on Thursday, but that won't accomplish anything unless Mr. Trump and the Republican-controlled Senate go along with it.
Mr. Trump's incoming chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, said Democrats are no longer negotiating with the administration over an earlier offer by the White House to accept less than the $5 billion Trump wants for the wall.
Democrats said the White House offered to accept $2.5 billion for border security, but that Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer told Vice President Mike Pence that it wasn't acceptable. It was also not guaranteed that Mr. Trump would settle for that amount.
"There's not a single Democrat talking to the president of the United States about this deal," Mulvaney said Friday.
