Trump signs bill to end shutdown

It extends funding through January 30, leaving the federal government on a path to keep adding about $1.8 trillion a year to its $38 trillion in debt

- Agence France-Presse

Donald Trump signs the funding bill to end the US government shutdown, at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.

(REUTERS)

The US government took the first tentative steps towards reopening on Thursday after President Donald Trump signed a bill to end the longest federal shutdown in US history.

The 43-day funding freeze had paralysed Washington and left hundreds of thousands of workers unpaid while Republicans and Democrats played a high-stakes blame game.

The Republican-led House of Representatives voted on Wednesday, largely along party lines, to approve a Senatepassed package that will reopen federal departments and agencies, as many Democrats fume over what they see as a capitulation by party leaders.

Trump lashed out at Democrats as he put his signature to the bill later in the Oval Office, urging Americans to remember the chaos when voting in hotly contested US midterm elections in a year's time.

"Today we are sending a clear message that we will never give in to extortion," said Trump, surrounded by gleeful Republican lawmakers including House Speaker Mike Johnson.