The Speaker of the US House of Representatives is confident that the government shutdown can be ended quickly

The Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Johnson, said he was confident that the government "shutdown" would be ended by Tuesday (February 3rd).

AFP reported that last week, the US Senate passed the appropriation bills for several departments for the remainder of the fiscal year just hours before the funds for these departments were about to run out. However, as the House of Representatives still needs time to approve the bill, multiple departments of the US federal government officially entered a "technical shutdown" at 0:00 on January 31.

The House of Representatives returned to Washington, which was blocked by heavy snow, on Monday (February 2nd) after a recess. They began to review the funding bill passed by the Senate in order to restart the government operations.

Johnson said on NBC's "Meet the Press" program on Sunday (the 1st): "I'm very confident that we can end the lockout by Tuesday at the earliest."

He expected that the appropriation bill could be passed simply by the votes of the Republican congressmen.

On the evening of January 30th, the Senate passed the appropriation bill with 71 votes in favor and 29 votes against, providing funds for multiple federal agencies including the Department of Defense, the Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Labor, the Department of Transportation, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, until the end of the fiscal year on September 30th. However, funds for the Department of Homeland Security were excluded. The funds for the Department of Homeland Security were separated and will be extended at the current level for two weeks to allow the two parties and the White House to continue negotiations on improving the operation of this department.

In January, after immigration enforcement officers shot and killed two American citizens during a law enforcement operation in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the differences between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party on the issue of immigration enforcement intensified. Senate Democratic leader Schumer recently said that before the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency is effectively restrained and reforms are passed through legislation, the funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security cannot receive sufficient support in the Senate. Whether the Republicans will accept the relevant demands of the Democrats remains to be seen.

In recent years, as the political confrontation between the Republican and Democratic parties has intensified, the US federal government has repeatedly faced crises of "shutdown" or "near shutdown". The record-breaking 43-day federal government "shutdown" just ended on November 12th last year.