The US Em­bassy in Port-of-Spain has con­firmed that its op­er­a­tions have been par­tial­ly af­fect­ed by the shut­down of the US gov­ern­ment, which took ef­fect at mid­night yes­ter­day.

The shut­down, trig­gered by Con­gress’ fail­ure to ap­prove fund­ing for the new fis­cal year, has forced fed­er­al agen­cies to sus­pend cer­tain ac­tiv­i­ties and fur­lough “non-ex­cept­ed” em­ploy­ees. Es­sen­tial staff re­main on the job but will not be paid un­til the shut­down ends.

The po­lit­i­cal stand­off pits the Re­pub­li­can ad­min­is­tra­tion of Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump, which con­trols both Con­gress and the House, against op­po­si­tion De­moc­rats in the Sen­ate. De­moc­rats have de­mand­ed fund­ing for health­care sub­si­dies—an ini­tia­tive Trump and Re­pub­li­cans op­pose—while each side blames the oth­er for the dead­lock.