Trump signs funding package, ending brief partial government shutdown

WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed a massive funding package, ending a partial government shutdown that began Saturday.

The bill narrowly passed the House of Representatives earlier Tuesday, after gaining Senate approval on Friday.

The latest package will fund multiple US federal agencies for the remainder of the fiscal year, which ends on Sept 30.

The agencies include the Department of Defense, the Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Labor, the Department of Transportation, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), originally included in the omnibus funding package, has been removed. The department will instead receive a two-week continuing resolution at current funding levels, allowing both parties and the White House to continue negotiations on immigration enforcement.

The recent two fatal shootings by federal enforcement personnel in the state of Minneapolis have prompted Democrats to seek changes to how immigration agencies operate. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has said that until Immigration and Customs Enforcement is properly reined in and overhauled legislatively, the DHS funding bill does not have the votes to pass the Senate.

In recent years, as political polarization between the Republican and Democratic parties has intensified, the US federal government has repeatedly fallen into crises of shutdown or being on the brink of shutdown. A record-breaking federal government shutdown that lasted 43 days came to an end more than two months ago.