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| House approves federal worker back pay as shutdown enters 5th day - Chicago Tribune Posted: 05 Oct 2013 08:23 AM PDT WASHINGTON— The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives unanimously approved a bill on Saturday that would retroactively pay 800,000 furloughed workers once the now 5-day-old government shutdown ends.The measure now goes to the Democratic-led Senate for concurrence. The White House has said that President Barack Obama will sign it into law. There is no end in sight to the shutdown, and there are still no bipartisan negotiations as Washington entered the fifth day of a partial government shutdown on Saturday even as another, more serious conflict over raising the nation's borrowing authority started heating up. The U.S. House of Representatives prepared for a Saturday session but with no expectations of progress on either the shutdown or a measure to raise the nation's $16.7 trillion debt ceiling. Congress must act by Oct. 17 in order to avoid a government debt default. Republican House Speaker John Boehner tried on Friday to squelch reports that he would ease the way to a debt ceiling increase, stressing that Republicans would continue to insist on budget cuts as a condition of raising the borrowing authority. On the shutdown, Boehner said Republicans were holding firm in their demand that in exchange for passing a bill to fund and reopen the government, President Barack Obama and his Democrats must agree to delay implementation of Obama's health care law. The launch date for Obamacare health insurance exchanges came and went on Oct. 1, meaning Republicans are now in a more difficult political position of trying to stop something that has already begun. Although essential government functions like national security and air traffic control continue, the economic and policy effects of the shutdown are amplified the longer hundreds of thousands of federal workers remain at home and unpaid. Negotiations on tax and free trade treaties are on hold, enforcement of sanctions against Iran and Syria are being hindered, and a government tester of dangerous consumer products spends his days at home. "Do not mistake this momentary episode in American politics as anything more than a moment of politics," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters at an Asia-Pacific leaders conference in Bali, Indonesia, on Saturday. "Nothing will diminish our commitment to Asia...we will continue to fulfill our responsibilities and our engagement around the world," said Kerry, who is standing in for Obama after the president cancel his Asian trip. TEMPERS FRAY Nerves and sometimes tempers frayed on Friday after several weeks of long sessions of Congress and non-stop posturing. "This isn't some damn game," said Boehner, responding to a Wall Street Journal article that quoted an unidentified White House official saying Democrats were "winning" the shutdown battle. The Democratic president reiterated that he was willing to negotiate with Republicans, but said, "We can't do it with a gun held to the head of the American people." "There's no winning when families don't have certainty over whether they're going to get paid or not," Obama told reporters when he visited a downtown Washington lunch spot that was offering a discount to furloughed federal government workers. The shutdown began on Tuesday when the Republican-led House of Representatives refused to approve a bill funding the government unless it included measures designed to delay or defund key provisions of Obama's signature legislation, the 2010 Affordable Care Act, which are now being implemented. Obama again appealed to Boehner to bring a "clean" funding bill - without reference to the health reforms - to a vote in the House, where many Democrats believe it could pass with a combination of Democrats and a few of the majority Republicans. POSSIBLE MANEUVER Democratic leaders in the House said on Friday they were working on a maneuver that, if successful, would force a vote on legislation to fully reopen the federal government. |
| Man believed to have set himself on fire on the Mall in Washington - NBCNews.com Posted: 05 Oct 2013 08:56 AM PDT  Gary Cameron / Reuters Police investigate the scene where a man apparently set himself on fire Friday on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. By M. Alex Johnson, Staff Writer, NBC News Passersby on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., ripped off their shirts to help extinguish the flames after a man apparently set himself on fire Friday, witnesses and authorities said. Washington D.C. Fire spokesman Tim Wilson told NBC News the unidentified man was suffering from life-threatening injuries when he was flown by helicopter to Washington Medical Center. Mitch Smith of the the National Park Police told Reuters he was in critical condition. The incident, which was reported at 4:24 p.m. ET, occurred on Seventh Street Southwest near the National Air and Space Museum, the Park Police said. Witnesses told several media organizations, including NBC Washington, that they saw the man pour gasoline on himself from a red canister and then set himself ablaze. There was a red plastic fuel container near where the incident happened, Reuters reported. Nearby joggers stopped and ripped off their shirts to smother the flames, NBC Washington reported. Nicole Didyk, an environmental engineer for the Federal Aviation Administration, told Reuters she was out for a run when she saw spotted a man with small flames on him. "There were five gentlemen hitting him with their T-shirts," Nicole Didyk, an environmental engineer for the Federal Aviation Administration, told Reuters. "When he fell over his arms were all white. He was burned really bad." She said the man thanked people who helped put the fire out. Watch the top videos on NBCNews.com NBC News' Simon Moya-Smith and Reuters contributed to this report. This story was originally published on Fri Oct 4, 2013 5:41 PM EDT |
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