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US shutdown halts Barack Obama's Malaysia trip


President Barack Obama has called off his trip to Malaysia to tackle the US government shutdown, the office of Malaysia's PM Najib Razak has said.

Secretary of State John Kerry will represent him next week instead, the office said.

The US government has partially shut down after the two houses of Congress failed to agree a new budget.

More than 700,000 federal employees face unpaid leave, and national parks, museums and many buildings are closed.

Mr Obama earlier vowed not to allow Republicans to undermine his signature healthcare legislation as a condition to restart the US government.

"They demanded ransom," Mr Obama said.

Four-nation trip
Mr Najib's office said Mr Obama had called the prime minister on Wednesday to inform him that Mr Kerry would address an entrepreneurship conference in Kuala Lumpur on 11 October in his place.

Mr Obama's visit would have been the first by a US president to Malaysia since Lyndon B Johnson in 1966.




Mr Obama had been scheduled to begin a four-nation Asian trip on Saturday to boost economic ties.

It would also have taken in Indonesia, Brunei and the Philippines.

There has been no confirmation yet of what Mr Obama intends to do with the rest of the itinerary.

This is the third time in three years Mr Obama has called off Asian trips.

In 2010, a vote on health care and the Gulf of Mexico oil spill forced separate cancellations.

'Hyper-partisan speeches'
The US government ceased operations deemed non-essential at midnight on Tuesday, when the previous budget expired.

National parks and Washington's Smithsonian museums are closed, pension and veterans' benefit cheques will be delayed, and visa and passport applications will go unprocessed.

However, members of the military will be paid.
  • State department will be able to operate for limited time
  • Department of defence will continue military operations
  • Department of education will still distribute $22bn (£13.6bn) to public schools, but staffing is expected to be severely hit
  • Department of energy - 12,700 staff expected to be sent home, with 1,113 remaining to oversee nuclear arsenal
  • Department of health and human services expected to send home more than half of staff
  • The Federal Reserve, dept of homeland security, and justice dept will see little or no disruption
  • US Postal Services continue as normal
  • Smithsonian institutions, museums, zoos and many national parks will close
  • Mr Obama blamed conservative Republicans in the House of Representatives for the government shutdown, saying "one faction of one party" was responsible because "they didn't like one law".
  • "They've shut down the government over an ideological crusade to deny affordable health insurance to millions of Americans," Mr Obama said.
  • The White House rejected a Republican plan to fund only a few portions of the government - national parks, veterans' programmes and the budget of the District of Columbia.
  • The Republicans have called for more negotiations.
  • A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner called the White House's position "unsustainably hypocritical".
  • Rory Cooper, a spokesman for Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, accused Mr Obama of "hyper-partisan speeches".
  • An opinion poll released on Tuesday suggested the American public was inclined to fault the Republican strategy.
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