The shutdown of roughly 25 percent of the federal government continued into a sixth day Thursday, with little or no evidence that President Trump and his Democratic opponents on Capitol Hill are moving any closer toward a deal that would break the impasse.
Of the roughly 800,000 federal workers directly affected, about 350,000 sit home on furlough while the rest, deemed essential, continue working; none of them can get paid.
The hardship for them, and for those ordinary citizens who need access to agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service or the national parks, may last into the new year, even past the start of the new Congress on Jan. 3.
