Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., maintained Tuesday he is hopeful congressional leaders can agree on a spending package in the next two weeks to avoid a government shutdown, despite Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., skipping a meeting at the White House Tuesday afternoon.
“All parties need to engage in good faith negotiations to reach an agreement. That’s what we hoped would happen at today’s White House meeting,” Schumer told reporters Tuesday afternoon. “Unfortunately, the president had other ideas.”
“With his tweet this morning, President Trump made sure today’s meeting was nothing more than a photo-op. These issues are far too serious for these kinds of games,” Schumer added. “Mr. President — it’s time to stop tweeting and start leading.”
In his tweet, Trump remarked he doesn’t “see a deal” in the future between the two sides with government spending set to expire on Dec. 8.
Schumer’s comments came just moments before Trump was set to meet with Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., as Schumer and Pelosi skipped the planned meeting between the five individuals.
The New York Democrat said he is “hopeful” the two parties will be able to avoid a shutdown, all the while predicting a shutdown will be blamed on Republicans as they control the presidency and both congressional chambers.
“I’m very hopeful we can avoid a shutdown,” Schumer said. “Our Republican colleagues have shown in the past that they know with them in charge [that] a shutdown falls on their back. They’re running the show. The American people know they’re running the show. We’re not going to obstruct for its own sake, but we need to make a bipartisan agreement. There are some things they want, and some things we want. We’re willing to compromise.”
However, some Democrats have floated the possibility of not supporting an extension of government funding without a legislative fix to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. DACA is set to expire in March and Democrats have made it known they want a fix for the program to be done by the end of the year.
Schumer claimed DACA is not the only issue of concern for Democrats.
“There are a whole bunch of issues out there that are very important to us,” he said, pointing to the extension of the Children’s Health Insurance Program, defense spending, and disaster relief funding.
Schumer said another deal could be struck just like the one between the four congressional leaders in late April when the president stayed out of negotiations.
“That’s what was done before. That’s what can be done again,” Schumer said. “As long as he remains a destructive force, it would be a waste of everyone’s time to continue working with someone who clearly has no interest in coming to an agreement.”
“When the president stays out of it, we seem to do much better,” he added.
Including Tuesday, there are only nine legislative days on the calendar before funding is set to expire next Friday.
