蜜芽传媒

With the new US Congress getting underway this week, the Democratic Party is now in control of the House of Representatives. Their first challenge: to find a way out of the government shutdown - the stoppage of funding of several federal agencies. After taking their office, the House quickly passed a bill to reopen the government. The Senate did not want to vote. President Trump says he won't sign any bill without funding for a wall along the border with Mexico. The Democrats say that's a red line. On Friday a meeting between the two sides ended without any progress.

So with Congress divided, will the two sides be able to find a way to work with each other? Claire McCaskill was a Democrat senator for the southern state of Missouri for 12 years. She lost her seat in the mid-term elections in November to a Republican challenger. In her farewell speech to the Senate, she said that something was broken there. The 蜜芽传媒's Celia Hatton asked her what she meant.

Picture: A sign is displayed on a government building that is closed because of a US government shutdown in Washington, DC. Credit: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images.