{"articles":[{"id":18377,"title":"The DC: 🏛 Have you been affected by the shutdown? and... Should the U.S. raise the minimum age for buying assault rifles?","html_content":"

by Causes | 1.3.19

Welcome to Thursday, 116th Congress...

Federal workers aren't the only ones finding themselves affected by Washington's budget impasse.

If you visited a national park over the holidays, for example, you may have experienced clashes over campgrounds and overflowing outhouses. California’s Joshua Tree National Park closed yesterday for this very reason.

\"The park is being forced to take this action for health and safety concerns as vault toilets reach capacity,\" the National Park Service (NPS) wrote in a statement. \"In addition to human waste in public areas, driving off road and other infractions that damage the resource are becoming a problem.\"

Other impacts of the shutdown include Smithsonian museums shuttering and various federal agencies putting loan applications on hold.

Have you been affected by the shutdown?

On the Radar

\nTop House and Senate leaders met with Trump at the White House yesterday, but no progress was made. Leaving the meeting, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told reporters that he asked Trump why the government couldn't be reopened while the two sides resolved their differences on border security funding. \"We asked him to give us one good reason. I asked him directly,\" Schumer said. \"He could not give a good answer.\" Schumer added: \"To use the shutdown as hostage - which they had no argument against - is wrong.\" Do Democrats & President Trump need to cut a deal on border security funding?\n

\nThe 116th Congress convenes today and is expected to vote on legislation that could affect the shutdown. In the House, lawmakers will vote on a rules package in their first vote, before electing the Speaker of the House, which will likely be Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). It’ll then take up two bills aimed at ending the partial government shutdown: one funding Homeland Security through February 8th, and the other reopening the agencies impacted by the shutdown through September. How do you feel about this week's congressional agenda?\n

Under the Radar

\nWashington state has banned anyone under 21 from buying semi-automatic rifles after 59 percent of voters passed an initiative in November that placed new restrictions on the purchase and ownership of firearms. Kristen Ellingboe, a spokeswoman for the Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility, told NBC news that the initiative specifically targeted the weapons used in mass shootings across the country. Opponents are arguing in court that the measure violates the Second and 14th amendments of the Constitution, as well as gun sellers' rights under the Commerce Clause. Should the U.S. raise the minimum age for buying assault rifles?\n

Your Gov at a Glance 👀

The White House: President Trump in D.C.

To be announced.

The House of Representatives: In

\nVoting on a bill to adopt the House rules for the 116th Congress.
\nVoting on a $271 billion bill to fund roughly one-fourth of the federal discretionary budget through September.
\nVoting on a bill to fund the Dept. of Homeland Security through February 8th with no additional border wall funding.

The Senate: In

To be announced.

What You're Saying

Here's how you're answering Should Drones Be Used to Deliver Medical Supplies?

(Follow Libertarian's comment here.)

(Follow Linda's comment here.)

But wait, there's more!

And, in the End…

Remember North Korea?

More than six months after Trump's historic meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, we're almost back to square one.

During his annual New Year's speech, Kim reiterated that sanctions on the country must be lifted before Pyongyang will give up a single weapon, dismantle a single missile site, or stop producing nuclear material.

“It’s fair to say that not much has changed, although we now have more clarity regarding North Korea’s bottom line,’’ Evans J.R. Revere, a veteran American diplomat and former president of the Korea Society, wrote in an email to the New York Times.

Should the U.S. maintain sanctions on North Korea?

Today is National Write to Congress Day; hit \"Contact Reps\" above to celebrate,

—Josh Herman

Talk to us via email at contact [at] countable.us. And don’t forget to keep in touch @Countable.

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