The White House and congressional Democrats made no progress Wednesday in a meeting aimed at finding some way to end the partial government shutdown, now in its 12th day.
House and Senate Democrats ignored President Trump’s demand for $5 billion in border wall funding, and they pushed him to sign legislation to fund eight of the nine federal government departments that are now partially closed.
“We are asking the president to open up government,” Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who is poised to become speaker on Thursday, said after meeting with the president Wednesday. “We are giving them a Republican path to do that. Why would he not do that?”
Trump hoped to make the case for a border wall by providing statistics and other information on issue but, according to Republican lawmakers in the room, Democrats were not interested in hearing about it.
Democrats “really didn’t want to hear” what Trump had to say about the need for the wall during the meeting, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said on his way out of the White House.
The aim of the meeting was to try to work out a compromise on seven stalled spending bills that comprise about 25 percent of fiscal 2019 federal spending. Spending authority for those agencies lapsed in December, and a partial government closure is ongoing.
Trump is refusing to sign the legislation because the bill for one of the departments, Homeland Security, does not include border wall funding. Democrats don’t want any money for a wall and said they will agree only to $1.3 billion in non-wall border security provisions.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said “there was no counteroffer” from Democrats to a compromise plan put forward last week by the White House, and he told reporters Trump invited everyone back to the White House to talk again on Friday.
Democrats on Thursday plan to introduce two spending bills that would end the partial shutdown. One would provide 2019 funding for the eight departments unrelated to Homeland Security, and a second bill would keep Homeland Security functioning at 2018 levels until Feb. 8.
But Trump said he would reject that proposal because it does not include wall funding, which he said is critical for national security and to stop an ongoing surge of illegal immigration from Central America.
The House is likely to pass the two spending bills, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he would not bring up a bill that Trump will not sign.
McCarthy after the White House meeting described “a crisis on the border right now,” and said Trump “wants to solve this as well.”
McCarthy said he believes that the two sides “can come to an agreement quickly,” perhaps after Pelosi is elected speaker on Thursday.
