Mitch McCann: US Correspondent on the Government shutting down

US Federal Government workers are bracing for days without pay. 

Republican and Democrat lawmakers have been unable to reach an agreement on a spending bill. 

US correspondent Mitch McCann says the shutdown's likely to last almost two weeks. 

He told Ryan Bridge until then, affected staff aren't getting paid, even if they're in essential roles. 

McCann says people like airport security staff and park rangers are expected to keep working every day without pay. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Rick mccanzo, US correspondent. Let's rock into the show. Ryan,
good morning, How are you very well? Thank you. How's
that shutdown going?

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Yeah, twelve hours into the shutdown here in the United
States and no sign of Democrats and Republicans coming together. Essentially,
the shutdown is when the government has to pass a
spending bill in terms of decigning what they're going to
spend their money on for the next four to twelve months,
and they haven't been able to come to agreement. That's
because they need sixty They need sixty votes in the

(00:28):
Senate for this to happen, but it hasn't been agreed upon.
And the reason that they can't agree to something here
is because Democrats are arguing before they sign on to
a spending bill, they need guarantees around tax credits so
more Americans can afford healthcare, but Republicans saying that's something
that needs to be debated later in the year, and
they're really going on the attack blaming the Democrats for this.

(00:50):
But at this stage, the prediction markets, Ryan expect this
to go on for about eleven to twelve days. So
in the meantime, park rangers aren't being paid TSA airports
aren't being paid, but they are expected to turn up
to work for free.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
And there are, as you say, some who have to
work who are essential and don't get paid. Others don't
get paid but don't have to go to work. The
last one I think under Trump was thirty four days long,
so this looks like it'd be a bit shorter, which
is a good thing. Hey, what's going on with this
New York high rise collapse? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:21):
This is bizarre. This is a twenty story public housing
building that's in the Bronx here in New York, and
it partially collapsed this morning as if half the building
has fallen off. It turned out it was related to
a chimney explosion. Inside this building, three four hundred people live,
so you can imagine how big it is. And according
to reports, not one person has been injured in this

(01:43):
building partially collapsing. Miraculous, but you can bet there's going
to be a long into investigation into what exactly happened here.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
Mtch appreciate your time. Mitch McCann, our US correspondent.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
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