AKIPRESS.COM - The partial government shutdown became the longest closure in the history of the United States when the clock ticked past midnight on Friday as President Donald Trump and nervous Republicans scrambled to find a way out of the mess, Aljazeerareports.

A solution could not come soon enough for around 800,000 federal workers who got pay statements on Friday but no pay.

The House and the Senate voted to give federal workers back pay whenever the federal government reopens and then left town for the weekend, as the shutdown entered its 22nd day.