White House flashes veto threat for Dem bills funding individual agencies without wall money

“The Administration is committed to working with the Congress to reopen agencies affected by lapsed appropriations, but any effort to do so must address the security and humanitarian crisis on our Southwest border and should restore funding for all agencies affected by the lapse,” the statement said.

With Democrats taking control of the House, they used their new majority last week to pass bills that would fund the Homeland Security Department and eight other federal agencies impacted by the shutdown, but did not include the roughly $5.6 billion Trump seeks for border security.

While there has been some support on the GOP side in the Senate for there to be a vote, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said he won’t bring any spending legislation to the Senate floor that is opposed by the White House.

While the decision is ultimately Trump’s, OMB said moving with the House bills “without a broader agreement to address the border crisis is unacceptable” and “recommend that he veto the bills.”

The statement was released shortly before Trump walked out of a White House meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., after the Democrats said they wouldn’t agree to fund a border wall, suggesting talks to end the government shutdown may have blown up.

Approximately 800,000 of approximately 2.1 million federal workers have been furloughed or are being required to work without pay during the partial shutdown, which is in its third week.