The State Department announced six minutes after the Senate failed to prevent a government shutdown late Thursday night that it would begin to limit its acceptance of passport applications at the D.C. Travel Show, an annual tourism industry seminar.
Due to a lapse in appropriated funds, we will no longer be participating in the #DCTravelShow and will not be accepting passport applications at the show. https://t.co/OTrxHciiTz
— Travel – State Dept (@TravelGov) January 20, 2018
The State Department also announced on their website that any “scheduled passport and visa services in the United States and at our posts overseas will continue during the lapse in appropriations as the situation permits. This website will not be regularly updated until full operations resume, with the exception of emergency safety and security information.”
At the stroke of midnight Friday, the White House blamed Democrats for the government shutdown, naming it after the Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and hashtagging their tweets with #SchumerShutdown. (RELATED: White House: Dems Own ‘The Schumer Shutdown’)
“This vote should be a ‘no-brainer.’ And it would be – except that the Democratic Leader has convinced his members to filibuster any funding bill that doesn’t include legislation they are demanding for people who came to the United States illegally. What has been shoehorned into this discussion is an insistence that we deal with an illegal immigration issue,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement.
Democrats, however, pointed to Republicans as the culprits.
“This will be called the #Trump shutdown because there is no one, no one who deserves the blame for the position we find ourselves in more than @POTUS,” Schumer said.