Democrats on Capitol Hill applauded reports on Tuesday that President Trump has backed off his demand for funding of a border wall in any new spending bill, signaling that it could pave the way to an agreement before the Friday deadline and avoid a partial government shutdown.
“Last night, we received a bit of good news,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said to open his weekly Tuesday press conference with Senate Democratic leaders. “For weeks, we had been making good progress in negotiating with our Republican colleagues. The president’s 11th-hour demand threatened to upend the progress. We’re pleased he’s backing off.”
The New York Democrat said he remained committed to weeding out “poison pill riders” from the bill and praised Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the ranking member on the Senate Appropriations Committee, for leading these efforts.
The Washington Post reported midway through Schumer’s press conference that the latest Republican offer includes no new spending toward the funding of a border wall. Schumer declined to comment on “behind the scenes” negotiations.
Earlier Tuesday House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer also spoke out against the possibility of including funding for the wall in any package ahead of Friday
“We continue to fight about things that they know are not going to be in there,” Hoyer, D-Md., said during his weekly pen and pad on Tuesday. “The wall has been brought into this, mainly by the president, not by the Republicans in the House or the Senate.”
“My understanding is he now says that’s perhaps not necessary to be in this bill,” he continued. “I think that probably largely comes from hearing from his Republicans in the Senate and the House that that’s not going to happen.”
The second-highest ranking House Democrat also pointed to a recent Wall Street Journal survey showing that no members who live along the border are supportive of the building of a wall.
While talks continue, lawmakers are leaving the door open to a potential short-term stopgap measure that would give negotiators another week to hammer out a long-term deal. Hoyer said he’s open to it only if Republicans do not use it as a mechanism to extract more concessions.
“If the Republicans want to extend for a short-term funding of the government without having reached an agreement within an extended period of time … then I’m reluctant to advise my members to support that,” Hoyer said. “So if they’re just extending so they can leverage more, to bait more, to negotiate more — on the other hand, if an extension is simply for the purpose of memorializing or passing an agreement that we can reach this week, then that makes sense.”
“I think we can reach an agreement this afternoon, frankly, if everybody said ‘we agree on 80 percent of this and that’s what we’re going to move forward on, and the 20 percent will have to wait until later,” he added.
