Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump signed a bill providing back pay to federal employees affected by the ongoing partial government shutdown, the White House announced Wednesday.

Trump signed the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019, which the White House said "requires the compensation of government employees for wages lost, work performed, or leave used during a lapse in appropriations that begins on or after December 22, 2018, and entitles excepted employees to use leave during a lapse in appropriations."

The workers will be paid after the shutdown is over.

Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Maryland, who sponsored the bill, tweeted that Trump signing the legislation "is an important step toward providing our civil servants with some stability and hope."

"But it doesn't help pay the bills *now.* To do that, we MUST reopen the government. #EndTheShutdown," added Cardin, whose state neighbors Washington and is home to many federal workers.

Read More</s>What’s up with the partial government shutdown on Day 26:

The Internal Revenue Service is recalling about 46,000 of its employees furloughed by the partial government shutdown to handle tax returns and pay out refunds. For now, they'll have to work without pay.

The White House tried to bypass House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in shutdown negotiations, but rank-and-file House Democrats declined an invitation to lunch Tuesday with President Donald Trump.

Some federal workers are taking on odd jobs to make ends meet. They have more options than in past shutdowns.

The partial government shutdown is slowing plans by some companies to issue stock to the public and potentially cutting off a key source of capital for the financial markets.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware: "The shutdown will eventually take us to a place where the average American is angry at and sick of all of us."

Trump is expected to sign legislation this week authorizing back pay for some 800,000 federal workers who either have been idled or are working without pay for as long as the shutdown lasts.

Nine of the 15 Cabinet-level departments have not been funded, including Agriculture , Homeland Security, State, Transportation, Interior and Justice. Some iconic National Park facilities are shuttered as are the Smithsonian museums and the National Zoo in Washington. Nearly everyone at NASA is being told to stay home.

WHO IS AT WORK BUT NOT GETTING PAID

Some 420,000 federal employees whose work is declared essential are working without pay, including at the FBI, TSA and other federal law enforcement offices. Some staff at the State and Homeland Security departments are also working without compensation.

See TSA wait times for the New Orleans airport</s>The U.S. economy is taking a larger-than-expected hit from the partial government shutdown, White House estimates showed on Tuesday, as the impasse between President Donald Trump and Democrats over a wall on the southern border dragged into its 25th day.

WASHINGTON: The U.S. economy is taking a larger-than-expected hit from the partial government shutdown, White House estimates showed on Tuesday, as contractors and even the Coast Guard go without pay and talks to end the impasse seemed stalled.

The shutdown dragged into its 25th day on Tuesday with neither Trump nor Democratic congressional leaders showing signs of bending on the topic that triggered it - funding for the wall Trump promised to build along the border with Mexico.

Trump invited a bipartisan group of members of Congress for lunch to discuss the standoff but the White House said Democrats turned down the invitation. Nine House Republicans - none of whom are involved in party leadership - attended the private lunch.

House Democratic leaders said they did not tell members to boycott Trump's lunch but had pressed those invited to consider whether the talks would be productive or be a photo-op for Trump.

"We are unified," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters on Tuesday morning.

Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of senators has been exploring solutions. Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican participant, told reporters in a Capitol hallway that the group had “momentum” but gave no other details.

Senator Joe Manchin, a Democratic member of the group, said "anything can be part of the negotiations."

"There’s a group - everybody’s talking. Everybody wants to find a way out of this," he said.

"Never in my political life have I ever seen the workers and the citizens that are dependent upon the services be used as a pawn,” Manchin said.

Trump is insisting Congress shell out US$5.7 billion for wall funding as about 800,000 federal workers go unpaid during the partial shutdown.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said she was working with the White House and Congress to pass legislation to fund the Coast Guard. While the Pentagon is not affected by the shutdown, the Coast Guard budget is part of Nielsen's department.

"Like the other branches of the U.S. military, active duty @USCG should be paid for their service and sacrifice to this nation," Nielsen wrote on Twitter.

The Trump administration had initially estimated the shutdown would cost the economy 0.1 percentage point in growth every two weeks that employees were without pay.

But on Tuesday, there was an updated figure: 0.13 percentage point every week because of the impact of work left undone by 380,000 furloughed employees as well as work left aside by federal contractors, a White House official said.

The partial shutdown is the longest in U.S. history and its effects have begun to reverberate across the country.

Longer lines have formed at some airports as more security screeners fail to show up for work while food and drug inspections have been curtailed and farmers, stung by recent trade spats, have been unable to receive federal aid.

Speaking on CNBC, Delta Air Lines Inc Chief Executive Officer Ed Bastian said the partial shutdown will cost the airline US$25 million in lost revenue in January because fewer government contractors are travelling.

Trump ran for office in 2016 on a promise to build a wall to stop illegal immigration and drug trafficking. He had toyed with the prospect of declaring a national emergency to circumvent Congress to secure the funding, but this week has backed off from that idea, which would attract a court challenge.

Democrats, who took over the U.S. House of Representatives this month, have rejected the border wall but back other border security measures. They also have insisted the government be fully open before negotiations occur.

House Democrats have passed a number of bills to fund the roughly one-quarter of federal operations that have been closed, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, has said the chamber will not consider legislation that Trump will not sign into law.

McConnell, who has mainly stayed out of the public fray on the shutdown, on Tuesday accused Democrats of "acrobatic contortions" to avoid negotiating on the shutdown.</s>Today is Day 27 in what has now become the longest government shutdown in American history. This shutdown has people talking — including Cardi B. In a 58-second Instagram video posted on January 16, she managed to sum up the most recent development in the shutdown and express the same concern that a lot of people have — from celebs to senators.

“I just wanna remind you, because it’s been a little bit over three weeks, okay. Trump is now ordering, as in summonsing, federal government workers to go back to work without getting paid,” Cardi said.

She went on to say, “Now, I don’t want to hear y’all motherf*ckers talking about, ‘Oh, but Obama shut down the government for 17 days.’ Yeah, b*tch! For health care! So your grandma could check her blood pressure!”

“This sh*t is really f*cking serious, bro,” she continued. “Our country is in a hellhole right now — all for a f*cking wall.”

“We really need to take this serious and I feel like we need to take some action,” Cardi said. “I really feel bad for these people that got to go to f*cking work to not get motherf*cking paid.”

As of Thursday morning, the video has over 10 million views and nearly 3 million likes, with several users leaving comments on how the shutdown has affected them, and various public figures applauding Cardi for speaking out — including Democratic lawmakers who publicly wondered, to share, or not to share?

"Trying to decide whether or not to retweet the Cardi B video," Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) tweeted. To which Senator Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) replied, "Omg, I had the same argument with myself 30 minutes ago!" Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, an eager spectator, then tweeted, "Guys. I'm still holding my breath. Are you gonna RT Cardi B or not?"

This video shouldn’t come as a surprise; this isn’t Cardi B’s first time speaking out against President Trump. Earlier yesterday, prior to her video post, Cardi called Trump a “clout chaser” on her Instagram Live: "He's like one of these new rap artists — they follow, they do the most for clout. And Trump wants that." Last June, she told Rolling Stone, “He has made divisions in this country – he almost made a crazy civil war between the blacks and the whites. He has proven himself to be a madman so many times, and proven himself to be disrespectful to women, and that still hasn’t gotten him impeached.”

This shutdown has impacted Americans in various ways, but, most notably — the nearly 800,000 people employed by the government. As Cardi mentioned, in response to the growing effects of this shutdown, various government agencies have called back thousands of furloughed workers.

For example, the secretary of Agriculture announced on Wednesday that the agency would recall around 2,500 Farm Service Agency workers to temporarily reopen offices to “help provide services for farmers and ranchers — many of whom are hurting financially from the administration’s tariffs,” reported Politico. According to The Washington Post, thousands of food, drug, medical and aviation safety inspectors have returned to work without pay. And the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced it would bring back thousands of employees on January 28 — when tax-filing season kicks off— if the government shutdown is still going on.

Cardi wasn’t the only girl from the Bronx to go off on the shutdown yesterday. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) also slammed the shutdown, in her first-ever speech from the floor of the House.

Get the Teen Vogue Take. Sign up for the Teen Vogue weekly email.</s>President Donald Trump questioned why House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would receive a paycheck from the government after many federal workers missed their first paycheck Friday.

Many federal workers might have been wondering the same thing.

“Why is Nancy Pelosi getting paid when people who are working are not?” Trump tweeted on Tuesday.

She did not respond to questions about whether she was accepting pay during the partial government shutdown, according to a Jan. 7 Washington Post article.

However, she was not among more than 70 members of Congress from both parties who have said they will refuse or donate their pay during the shutdown, accoridng to a CNN report Thursday.

Those members include Republican Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw and Democratic Virginia Rep. Virginia Wexton, both freshmen, according to Fox Business.

Congressional leaders besides Pelosi also dodged questions about taking pay during the shutdown.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise did not reveal their plans to accept or refuse pay during the partial government shutdown as of Jan. 7, according to WaPo.

Trump has always donated his presidential salary, which is $400,000 a year, according to Business Insider.

For example, he has given his salary to the Department of Transportation to rebuild infrastructure and to the Department of Health and Human Services to fight the opioid crisis.

The shutdown affects roughly 800,000 federal employees, who missed their first paychecks Friday.

RELATED: Several Republican Senators Team Up with Democrats, Urge Trump To End Shutdown

A news release from the Senate Appropriations Committee estimated more than 420,000 essential federal employees would be expected to work without pay.

Some lawmakers have introduced legislation to change how future shutdowns affect lawmakers and federal employees.

For example, Republican Montana Sen. Steve Daines introduced a bill Thursday to withhold the pay of members of Congress during future government shutdowns.

We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.</s>(WASHINGTON) — The State Department on Thursday instructed all U.S. diplomats in Washington and elsewhere to return to work next week with pay, saying it had found money for their salaries at least temporarily despite the ongoing government shutdown.

In a notice to staff posted online and sent to employees, the department said it had found money to pay most of its employees beginning Sunday or Monday for their next pay period. They will not be paid for time worked since the shutdown began in December until the situation is resolved, said the notice, which was signed by William Todd, the deputy undersecretary of state for management.

It was not immediately clear where the money was found, but the department said it would use “existing funds as well as other available fiscal authorities to shift existing balances to restart payroll funding.”

Salaries cannot be guaranteed beyond the next pay period, which ends on Feb. 14, if the shutdown does not end by then, the department said. However, it said it would “review its balances and available legal authorities to see if other flexibilities may be available.”

The department said it was taking the step because it had become clear that the lapse in funding is harming essential diplomatic and national security objectives.

“While the department has done its best to address matters essential to achieving U.S. national security and foreign policy objectives during the ongoing lapse, it has become clear as the lapse has continued to historic lengths that we need our full team to address the myriad critical issues requiring U.S. leadership around the globe and to fulfill our commitments to the American people,” it said.

It added that the department’s leadership was “deeply concerned” about the financial hardships faced by its employees.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had raised eyebrows among the U.S. diplomatic corps last week when he proclaimed that morale at the State Department was “good” despite the shutdown and the fact that 40 percent of its employees in the U.S. and nearly 23 percent overseas had been furloughed and the rest were working without pay.

His comments also touched a nerve as he said he planned to go ahead with a previously scheduled conference of all U.S. ambassadors in Washington this week despite the funding constraints affecting employees.

Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan announced the return to work with pay instructions to that conference on Thursday and was greeted with two rounds of sustained applause, according to one diplomat who was present.

Outside the State Department other agencies continued to operate under the shutdown constraints.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says President Donald Trump has yet to respond to her request that he postpone his State of the Union address until the government is reopened so workers can be paid for providing security for the grand Washington tradition.

“We haven’t heard — very silent,” she told reporters on Thursday. “Let’s get a date when government is open. Let’s pay the employees. Maybe he thinks it’s OK not to pay people who do work. I don’t.”

The president’s planned Jan. 29 address became a potential casualty of the four-week partial government shutdown after the Democratic leader cited concerns about whether the hobbled government can provide adequate security. Republicans cast Pelosi’s move as a ploy to deny Trump the stage.

Trump declined to address the stalemate over the speech Thursday during a visit to the Pentagon, simply promising that the nation will have “powerful, strong border security.”

The uncertainty surrounding the annual address also underscored the unraveling of ceremonial norms and niceties in Trump’s Washington, amid the shutdown over the president’s demand for money to build a U.S.-Mexico border wall. The impasse is draining the finances of hundreds of thousands of federal employees going without paychecks.

Pelosi reiterated she is more than willing to negotiate money for border security once the government is reopened, but she said Democrats remain opposed to Trump’s long-promised wall, one of his signature campaign promises.

“I’m not for a wall,” Pelosi said twice, mouthing the statement a third time for effect.

Pressure on Trump intensified, as lawmakers from both parties scrambled for solutions. The shutdown, already the longest ever, entered its 27th day Thursday.

While Trump’s own advisers said the shutdown was proving a greater drag on the economy than expected, Trump showed no signs of backing off a fight that he views as vital for his core supporters.</s>Gary Cohn, the former Goldman Sachs executive and ex-top economic adviser to President Donald Trump, denounced the partial government shutdown as "completely wrong" in an interview published by the Boston Globe on Thursday.

The shutdown, which entered its 27th day Thursday and is the longest in history, shows no sign of ending soon as Democrats and the White House remain at an impasse over granting Trump more than $5 billion for a wall on the southern border. While Trump called the wall necessary for national security, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called it "immoral," leading to a standoff that has furloughed thousands of federal workers and threatened basic public infrastructure.

“I don’t understand what the outcome is here, and I don’t understand where we’re going with it,” Cohn said in the interview. “I’m confused as to what the White House’s strategy is on this a little bit.”

He added the furloughing of thousands of federal workers “makes absolutely no sense whatsoever."

Cohn, a Democrat, was among the dwindling ranks of free market advocates in Trump's circle who have often butt heads with the president's protectionist agenda. Cohn resigned from his position last year after the president imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said the shutdown could delay key trade discussions, including with Japan and the European Union, The Wall Street Journal reported. Congress could also be stalled reviewing Trump's revised trade deal with Mexico and Canada, so long as the shutdown keeps the International Trade Commission from finishing a report on the deal, Grassley said.

The revised trade deal with Mexico and Canada was one of Trump's major campaign promises. Trump repeatedly lambasted its predecessor, NAFTA, as benefiting Mexico and Canada at the United States' expense and spent days praising himself for the revised version signed during the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires last November. Congress still needs to approve the deal for it to go into effect — but the shutdown puts that final step in question.</s>WASHINGTON – A group of rank-and-file House Democrats turned down an invitation to have lunch with President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday, a snub that underscores the extraordinary divisions that have brought negotiations over the government shutdown to a standstill.

The invited Democrats, including centrist-leaning freshman and sophomore members, skipped the meeting amid calls for unity from Democratic leaders and fellow lawmakers who had voiced concerns the meeting would be little more than a photo opportunity that bolsters Trump.

Their decision marked another failure in the White House’s ongoing attempt to splinter Democrats, who instead are holding firm against Trump’s demands for $5.7 billion for his border wall.

The stalemate led to the partial government shutdown that was in its 25th day Tuesday, the longest such closure in history, with 800,000 federal workers going without pay.

“Today, the president offered both Democrats and Republicans the chance to meet for lunch at the White House. Unfortunately, no Democrats will attend,” said White House press secretary Sarah Sanders. “The president looks forward to having a working lunch with House Republicans to solve the border crisis and reopen the government. It’s time for the Democrats to come to the table and make a deal.”

Shortly before the statement from Sanders, House Democratic leaders had made clear they did not want to see individual lawmakers breaking off to meet with the president – although they said they were not explicitly discouraging anyone from attending.

“The question that I think everyone can reasonably ask is, is he inviting people to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to really try to resolve this problem or to create a photo op so he can project a false sense of bipartisanship?” said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who chairs the House Democratic Caucus. “That is a question that I think every individual member will have to entertain for themselves.”

Invited lawmakers included Reps. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., and J. Luis Correa, D-Calif., both leaders of the centrist Blue Dog Coalition, and Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., a freshman lawmaker who is also a Blue Dog member.

In a statement, Murphy cited a scheduling conflict, while a spokesman for Correa said the congressman “welcomes the opportunity to talk with the president about border security, as soon as the government is reopened.”

Trump’s proposed meeting Tuesday marks the second attempt in as many days to start a dialogue that works around the gridlocked talks between Trump and top Democrats.

A bipartisan group of senators met late Monday to try to find a way out of the shutdown impasse. Their gathering did not produce a consensus. As of Tuesday, no new meetings were scheduled nor was it clear whether the bipartisan group would convene again.

Both the House and the Senate canceled recesses that had been scheduled for next week, with leaders saying they would stay in town to work through the shutdown.

The White House’s strategy for weeks has been to splinter the Democrats, but they have failed repeatedly as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has aligned himself closely with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. The newest iteration of this approach for the White House has been to try to pry loose rank-and-file members from Schumer and Pelosi’s side, but that appeared to have failed as of Tuesday.

This was a key test for both Democratic leaders and also freshman Democrats, many of whom had sent mixed signals about abiding by leadership during their campaigns.

Rep. Katie Hill, D-Calif., a leader of the new class of freshman House Democrats, said the sentiment was clear at a freshman class meeting Tuesday morning that no Democrat should join Trump at the White House.

“I would say that that is definitely the general feeling, is that whoever goes to the White House is kind of setting themselves up to be used as a stunt,” Hill told reporters at the Capitol.

The House, newly under Democratic control, has passed spending bills to reopen portions of the government unrelated to the border wall, with Democratic leaders saying Trump must support their legislation and reopen the government before they negotiate on his border security request.

Trump has refused, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said repeatedly that he will not put any legislation on the Senate floor without Trump’s support.

Schumer on Tuesday called on McConnell to “end the pain,” open the government and allow them to debate border security.

Asked if the Senate might potentially try to override a Trump veto to end the shutdown, McConnell on Tuesday replied: “Of course not.”

Amid the confusion surrounding Tuesday’s meeting, the White House sought to organize a new meeting with House Democrats for Wednesday, sending out an invitation to bipartisan members of the Problem Solvers Caucus, according to two Democrats familiar with the invitation. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential communications.

Trump’s GOP allies in Congress criticized Democrats for the Tuesday snub.

“In case you needed MORE proof that Democrats are more interested in stopping the President than helping the country,” Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, wrote on Twitter Thursday. “They rejected President Trump’s invitation to meet at the White House. They refuse to come to a compromise to secure the border and end the shutdown.”

Democratic leaders have worked to maintain a united front opposing any increase in funding for border barriers and security beyond a $1.3 billion annual allocation already in place.

“The Democrats are completely unified, and our objective is to reopen government,” said Rep. Katherine Clark, D-Mass., a member of the House Democratic leadership.

At a closed-door meeting of the House Democratic Caucus on Tuesday morning, Pelosi began by reading results of the latest Quinnipiac University poll, showing voters blame Trump more than Democrats for the shutdown, according to an aide in the room who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private gathering.

The aide said Pelosi went on to tell her caucus: “We want to talk about our values in terms of immigration and how that’s always been bipartisan, including George Herbert Walker Bush, Ronald Reagan and the rest. Not to go into that, but to just say that I understand you all want to know what’s the next step, but just the message of ‘Open up government so we can have this discussion’ is a very important message.”

The outreach from the White House came with concerns mounting in the Capitol over the impacts of the government shutdown, with both sides dug in and no negotiations happening between Trump and congressional leaders. Trump continues to demand billions for his wall – and Democratic leaders continue to refuse.

The 800,000 affected federal workers comprise those who have been furloughed and those who are working without pay. Congress has signaled its intent to give workers back pay for the shutdown period, but many workers missed their first check last week, leading to broad hardship and union lawsuits.

The shutdown is also complicating the government’s ability to perform duties millions of Americans depend on.

The Treasury Department, including the Internal Revenue Service, is unfunded, complicating preparations for the height of tax season. White House officials warned earlier this month that the nation’s food stamp program was at risk of running out of funding in March if the shutdown is not resolved.

The departments and agencies affected by the shutdown make up about a quarter of the parts of the federal government that are funded by Congress.

The Pentagon is mostly unaffected, since a spending bill for the military was passed by Congress and signed by Trump in 2018. Congress and the president also passed legislation to fund the Labor Department, the Department of Health and Human Services and others before Trump’s demands for wall money ground negotiations on other spending bills to a halt.

Programs such as Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid also are unaffected, because their budgets proceed automatically, without the need for annual congressional appropriations. The Russia investigation of special counsel Robert Mueller also is unaffected; it is paid for by a permanent, dedicated funding stream.</s>WASHINGTON — Shifting strategy, the White House invited rank-and-file House Democrats to lunch Tuesday with President Donald Trump, bypassing Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her leadership team in an effort to get centrist and freshman lawmakers on board with funding Trump's long-promised U.S.-Mexico border wall.

Pelosi approved of lawmakers attending the meeting, telling her team that the group can see what she and others have been dealing with in trying to negotiate with Trump to end the partial government shutdown, now in its 25th day with no resolution in sight.

Pelosi predicted that after meeting with Trump the lawmakers will want to make a "citizen's arrest," according to the aide, who wasn't authorized to publicly discuss the meeting and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Lawmakers invited to the White House include centrist Democrats from districts where Trump is popular, including freshmen.

Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., said he attended a meeting of fellow centrist Democrats on Monday night and that a handful of members, most of whom represent districts Trump carried in 2016, were invited.

The White House has not released a guest list.

Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, another centrist Democrat, said the White House is "grasping at straws."

"The majority of Americans understand exactly what is happening here," he said. "The president could open the government tomorrow and he refuses to. We're very conscious of the fact that this is a bully and when you allow him to succeed by holding the government hostage you can expect to see that play run again."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor that it's up to Democrats to get the country off the "political carousel" of the shutdown fight. The Kentucky Republican said Democrats have turned Trump's wall into "something evil" and have engaged in "acrobatic contortions" to avoid dealing with the security and humanitarian crisis at the southern border.

With the government shutdown now in its fourth week, negations between the White House and Congress are at a standstill. Trump has demanded $5.7 billion for the border wall; Democrats are refusing but are offering money for fencing and other border security measures.

Trump has rejected a short-term legislative fix and dug in for more combat, declaring he would "never ever back down." The president also edged further away from the idea of trying to declare a national emergency to circumvent Congress.

"I'm not looking to call a national emergency," Trump said Monday. "This is so simple we shouldn't have to."

Congressional Republicans were watching Trump for a signal for how to move next, and Democrats have not budged from their refusal to fund the wall and their demand that he reopen government before border talks resume.

House Democrats plan to hold votes this week on legislation this week that would reopen the government into February, but Republicans are rejecting those bills out of hand. Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., called the votes "political theater" and said the legislation will not pass the Senate.

In addition to the White House outreach to centrist House Democrats, about a dozen senators from both parties met Monday to discuss ways out of the shutdown gridlock. Participants included Graham and Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Tim Kaine, D-Va.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, McConnell was aware of the group's effort but added, "I wouldn't go so far as to say he's blessed it." The odds of the group producing a solution without Trump's approval seemed slim.

Meanwhile, the effects of the 25-day partial government closure were intensifying around the country.

Some 800,000 federal workers missed paychecks Friday, deepening anxieties about mortgage payments and unpaid bills, and about half of them were off the job, cutting off some services. Travelers at the Atlanta airport, the nation's busiest, dealt with waits of more than an hour Monday as no-shows by security screeners soared.

Trump spent the weekend in the White House tweeting aggressively about Democratic foes as he tried to make the case that the wall was needed on both security and humanitarian grounds. He stressed that argument repeatedly during Monday's speech at a farming convention in New Orleans, insisting there was "no substitute" for a wall or a barrier along the southern border.

Trump has continued to insist he has the power to sign an emergency declaration to deal with what he says is a crisis of drug smuggling and trafficking of women and children at the border. But he now appears to be in no rush to make such a declaration.

Instead, he is focused on pushing Democrats to return to the negotiating table — though he walked out of the most recent talks last week.

White House officials cautioned that an emergency order remains on the table. Many inside and outside the White House hold that it may be the best option to end the budget standoff, reopening the government while allowing Trump to tell his base supporters he didn't cave on the wall.

However, some GOP lawmakers — as well as White House aides — have counseled against it, concerned that an emergency declaration would immediately be challenged in court. Others have raised concerns about re-routing money from other projects, including money Congress approved for disaster aid. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have also warned that acting under an emergency order would set a troubling precedent for executive power.</s>Officials at Akron-Canton Airport are taking steps during the current government shutdown to show their TSA workers how much they value them.

On Friday, the airport offered its TSA workers boxed lunches.

Marketing Director Lisa Dalpiaz said they will consider additional assistance if the shutdown continues.

“I guess we’re all just really hoping that we wake up tomorrow and it’s over," Dalpiaz said. "The TSA and the air traffic controllers – they’re part of the team and we value them so much and we’re very thankful that they’re showing up with a great attitude as well. So, travel has not been impacted.”

TSA agents and air traffic controllers are considered “essential” employees and are required to show up to work during the shutdown, even though they are not being paid.

The partial government shutdown is now in its fourth week.
President Donald Trump signs a bill which requires the government to compensate government employees after the shutdown is over for their work during the shutdown.